Tower Health cut small number of jobs last month
About 50 positions were cut, including management jobs and an unspecified number of unfilled positions.
Tower Health, a nonprofit health system based in Berks County, eliminated about 50 positions last month as it continues to recover financially from an unsuccessful acquisition in 2017.
The cuts included management jobs and an unspecified number of unfilled positions, Tower said in a statement provided to The Inquirer this week. Tower’s statement noted that its finances had improved, but that it remained focused on streamlining operations.
Tower’s most recent job cuts were first reported by WFMZ on July 1. The announcement was made internally on June 26.
Tower owns Reading, Phoenixville, and Pottstown Hospitals. In a 50-50 partnership with Drexel University, it also owns St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children in Philadelphia.
Long recovery
In 2017, Tower paid more than $400 million for five community hospitals in Chestnut Hill, Coatesville, Jennersville, Phoenixville, and Pottstown, banking on patients from those areas traveling to Reading Hospital for high-end specialty care.
Integration difficulties led to massive losses, the eventual closure of two hospitals in Chester County, and the sale of Chestnut Hill Hospital. Tower wrote off much of the acquired hospitals’ value. But Tower still has the debt, giving it little room to maneuver financially.
That’s why Fitch Ratings kept Tower’s credit rating at the extremely low level of ‘CCC’ in its latest review. Fitch acknowledged that Tower had increased its liquidity this year and had achieved a small profit, but said the system’s finances were still “very weak.”