Tower Health, Drexel University to assume ownership of St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children

Tower Health and Drexel University have entered into an agreement to acquire St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children. The 189-bed, 144 year old for-profit children’s hospital, located in the city of Philadelphia, was sold to the two organizations for $50 million.

The sale was approved by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware Sept. 24.

The sale is part of the process to resolve the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filed by American Academic Health Systems LLC, of which Center City Healthcare, owner and operator of St. Christopher’s, is a subsidiary.

Officials from Tower and Drexel plan on keeping the 144 year old hospital intact.

“Tower Health and Drexel are committed to the North Philadelphia community – including the more than 30,000 children who depend on the hospital for their primary care and the 70,000 children served annually by the hospital’s emergency department – as well as its growing network of primary and specialty care locations throughout the Philadelphia suburbs and New Jersey,” said Clint Matthews, president and CEO of Tower Health.

The hospital has served as a training site for Drexel University College of Medicine students for over 20 years. Drexel’s third and fourth year residents complete their hospital-based clinical rotations in pediatrics at St. Christopher’s.

Tower Health and Drexel will assume operations of the hospital prior to the end of the year, and plan on keeping all current operations at the hospital intact.

The new owners said that they expect the hospital’s owner transition to be “seamless.”