By Betsy Brewer Brantner
Contributing Writer

There was a sense of joy and relief last Friday as ChristianaCare and the southern Chester County community celebrated the return of emergency medical care during a ribbon-cutting ceremony for its new hospital on the West Grove campus.

The neighborhood hospital is expected to open in August.

State Sen. Carolyn Comitta thanked State Rep. John Lawrence before an excited crowd of hundreds for the timely phone call he made to ChristianaCare, which was the beginning of bringing emergency care back to the area.

A major health care void was created when the Jennersville Hospital closed in last 2021. ChristianaCare’s neighborhood hospital will fill that void—and save lives.

“Shortly after the hospital closed at the end of 2021, I organized a meeting with key leaders at ChristianaCare and then-Secretary of Health Keara Klinepeter,” Lawrence explained. “We met just down the road from where we are standing today to talk about what it would take to bring hospital care and an ER back to this area.  Today, we celebrate the fruition of the seeds planted at those early meetings – a state-of-the-art health care facility that will serve our community for the next generation.”

Residents in Southern Chester County were gravely concerned when the hospital shut its doors in 2021. The loss of a hospital at the end of the COVID pandemic put many in the community in a state of panic.

Pauline Corso, said, “I’d like to thank Dr. Janice Nevin. Because of her leadership, we are here today. When ChristianaCare makes a promise, they deliver.”

After years of hard work and determination, Lawrence joined senior leaders from ChristianaCare and other elected officials for the ribbon-cutting ceremony at the new hospital in Jennersville to celebrate the return of emergency medical care to southern Chester County.  Friday’s event saw several hundred attendees, including local business leaders, township officials, and contractors who constructed the new facility. 

When ChristianaCare purchased the hospital complex in June of 2022, it was decided that, rather than reopen the old facility, ChristianaCare instead gutted and completely rebuilt a new hospital and emergency room in the old building’s shell. The result is a new, state-of-the-art facility that is ready to serve the community for the next generation.

Local residents waited years living in fear of a long ambulance ride to a hospital for emergency services, but with the opening of the new facility, critical health care will only be minutes away for thousands of people.

Funding for the hospital was made possible by local, state and federal funding.

County Commissioner Josh Maxwell said, “We listened to the residents. We wanted to have a long-standing staff and we wanted to use our investment dollars wisely.”

Comitta knew the first thing they needed was approval for a micro-hospital. “I was confident it would happen and it did,” she said.

The neighborhood hospital will offer fast, effective and compassionate care 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, which is a comfort to residents throughout southern Chester County. The 20,000-square-foot hospital is expected to open in mid-August and will offer a 10-bed inpatient unit, a 10-room emergency department and imaging services. It will also feature a helipad for easy transport. The hospital will provide emergency and acute care, with patients needing more advanced treatment being transferred to larger hospitals in the region.