In Ludlow, it’s already tough to get a job. So the potential loss of approximately 100 positions at Girard Medical Center’s Continuing Care Hospital (CCH) has many people shaking their heads. The CCH, a long-term acute care facility located at Eighth Street and Girard Avenue plans to close next week due to lagging enrollment and a lack of adequate revenue to cover its costs.
Continuing Care Hospital was the first of its kind in Philadelphia and was only one of a handful that exist in the city today. Opened in 1994 by the North Philadelphia Health System, CCH offered care to patients who were ready to be discharged from an acute-care setting, but required more treatment than what is typically available in a nursing home. Patients usually stay in these specialty facilities for periods of 25 days or longer.
Although some employees face layoffs with the decision to shut down CCH, nurse Kehia Taylor (pictured left in the above photo) says that many staff members and patients have been offered placement at hospitals nearby. In her case Taylor says she will be transferring to St. Joseph’s Hospital just a few blocks away at Sixteenth Street and Girard Avenue, the other hospital that is part of the North Philadelphia Health System.
Megan Linkfield and Sandra Rollins, group 40, Ludlow
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