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Judy Ramos, president of the Crozer-Chester Society of Pharmacists, said “credit holds” are a frequent obstacle to staff. For example, pharmacists have previously run out of equipment to package drugs and eventually find out they are on credit hold with a supplier.
“We finally got to a point where we had to use little Ziploc bags and package things like that and put a label on them — not very professional looking. And then eventually they get around to paying a bill and then something else comes in. But from day to day, you don’t really know what equipment you have to work with,” Ramos said.
Ramos, who has worked at Crozer for 35 years, said these issues, when compounded, can negatively impact patients.
“The harder that it gets to package drugs, the longer that it takes to do it. And then there are patients who are ordered a drug. The drug is not available to them. They have a delay in getting their medicine. It’s just not the way that we’re used to practicing pharmacy,” Ramos said.
Prospect owes Upland Borough nearly $70,000, chief says
Prospect’s inability to pay some of its bills has impacted more than just Crozer’s flagship hospital’s supplies and equipment.
Normally, the Upland Borough Police Department would have an officer permanently stationed at the hospital. But that’s recently changed.
“We ended up pulling out of the agreement and we no longer have an officer on site,” said Michael Irey, the police chief of Upland Borough.
Irey said Prospect owes the borough just short of $70,000 since missing payments for the months of December, January, and February — a growing figure the borough couldn’t “sustain.”
The police will still respond to calls at the hospital. And the hospital still contracts with an outside security firm. Irey, however, said it was essential to have an officer on site due to the sheer call volume.
In 2016, Irey said calls to the hospital — which includes a crisis center — accounted for roughly a third of all of the police department’s dispatches. Irey said the number has only risen following the pandemic and its overwhelming Crozer-Chester’s emergency room.
“Rather than having to call 911 and have a delay, that officer is right on the radio. So it cuts down on response time. It cuts down on officers having to fly around all over the place for a call that may not require something like that,” Irey said.
Malone called the lack of a constant police presence at the county’s largest mental health facility “extremely concerning.”
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