News for Immediate Release
January 27, 2026
Harrisburg – A new article, Hospital Closures, published today as part of PHC4’s Current Events series, details the closing of two Pennsylvania hospitals, serving as a case study to support a better understanding of the dynamics of hospital closures in the Commonwealth.
From 2018 to the time of this article, 10 general acute care (GAC) hospitals licensed by the PA Department of Health have closed, 1 GAC hospital has converted to a psychiatric hospital, 17 have merged with another licensed GAC hospital, and 10 GAC hospitals have opened in the Commonwealth of PA. This article focuses on the closures of Brandywine Hospital (Brandywine) and Jennersville Hospital (Jennersville), both of which were operated by Tower Health at the time of closing. Jennersville closed to patients on December 31, 2021, followed by Brandywine on January 31, 2022. Both located in Chester County; the two hospitals were less than 20 miles apart from each other at the time of closure.
Barry D. Buckingham, PHC4’s Executive Director, stated, “This article offers a close look into the clinical and financial data associated with these closures. Additionally, it serves as a demonstration of how PHC4’s decades of collected data can be of value to stakeholders across the Commonwealth.” He went on to discuss the benefit of having such data to examine health care topics over an extended period, “…the discharge records combined with the financial information collected annually from facilities in PA provides the opportunity to examine diagnostic categories for both hospitals, as well as data like net patient revenue across payer types.” Buckingham also praised the interagency support received, noting the inclusion of data from PA’s Department of Labor and Industry in the article.
PHC4 is an independent council formed under Pennsylvania statute (Act 89 of 1986, as amended by Act 15 of 2020) in order to address rapidly growing health care costs. PHC4 continues to produce comparative information about the most efficient and effective health care to individual consumers and group purchasers of health services. In addition, PHC4 produces information used to identify opportunities to contain costs and improve the quality of care delivered.
For more information, visit phc4.org or read the article here.
Media contact:
Barry D. Buckingham, Executive Director, PHC4
[email protected]
