A healthcare desert has emerged in Delaware County. There are currently only two hospitals, Riddle and Mercy Fitzgerald, operating in a county of around 576,000 — where there once had been six. The four additional hospitals of the Crozer Health System — Crozer-Chester, Taylor, Delaware County Memorial, and Springfield — began closing in 2022, just six years after Prospect Medical Holdings (PMH) acquired them.

Originally founded by a group of California physicians, Prospect Medical Holdings (PMH) became majority-owned by the private equity investment firm Leonard Green & Partners (LGP) in 2010. LGP spent $363 million for a 61.3 percent position in the healthcare company. By 2018, LGP had PMH take on debt of $1.31 billion, a cash infusion that allowed PMH to pay LGP dividends and manag

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