MEDIA ALERT

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 2025

CONTACT: Megan Othersen Gorman / [email protected] / (215) 817-5781

Ashley Berry Johnson / [email protected] / (267) 990-5505

Dave Bates / dave.bates@hailstonecommunications.com / 347-865-8038

POTTSTOWN HOSPITAL RNS, HEALTHCARE WORKERS, COMMUNITY LEADERS TO CALL OUT TOWER HEALTH FOR ALARMING SERVICE CUTS AND MASSIVE LAYOFFS THAT WILL DEVASTATE PATIENT CARE AND THE POTTSTOWN COMMUNITY

Tower’s Decision to Eliminate Vital Services at Pottstown Despite 8 Quarters of Health System Profitability Is a Callous Choice to Prioritize Their Own Financial Interests Over the Needs of the Pottstown Community

PRESS CONFERENCE SLATED FOR 9 AM ON MONDAY, NOVEMBER 17TH

OUTSIDE POTTSTOWN HOSPITAL

POTTSTOWN, PA – On MONDAY, NOVEMBER 17TH AT 9 AM, nurses and healthcare workers at Pottstown Hospital will hold a press conference in front of the hospital, the corner of High Street and Armand Hammer Boulevard, to call out hospital owner Tower Health for the alarming service cuts and massive layoffs they announced Friday, November 7th, in an infuriatingly tone deaf, pro forma email to the staff.

With Pottstown community leaders, the RNs and healthcare workers will call on Tower leadership to immediately halt the planned service cuts and engage in good-faith discussions to explore alternatives that preserve essential services, protect jobs, and safeguard patient care for the community who has relied on Pottstown Hospital for more than 100 years.

On November 7th, Tower announced that, effective January 16, 2026, they’re ending critical care services, in-patient surgery, and Cancer Center care at Pottstown Hospital. These aren’t just lines on a balance sheet — they represent the absolute gutting of essential hospital services that local families depend on.

“At a time when communities need more access to care, not less, slashing services and laying off skilled caregivers isn’t just reckless, it’s cruel,” says President Maureen May, RN, president of the Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals (PASNAP), which represents 275 frontline nurses at Pottstown Hospital, a significant percentage of whom will be affected by the planned cuts. “These service cuts will deepen healthcare disparities, force patients to travel farther for essential treatment, and leave caregivers and families in crisis. This community deserves better.”

“It’s my opinion, as the President of the Pottstown NAACP and a cancer patient at Pottstown Hospital, that this move is discriminatory to the vulnerable people of this population and discriminatory to the people of Pottstown,” says Johnny Corson. “This hospital is here because of the sale of Pottstown Hospital and all the work that’s being done to support this hospital. For it to just be ripped out from underneath of us, it actually pisses me off. I’m upset that they’re giving us just 60 days to find ways to get treatment. This is life and death. Just imagine the toll this is going to take mentally. Stress is one of the worst things that a cancer patient can deal with. Tower, you just put undue stress on a lot of sick people in this community who relied on you, who counted on you, and who believed in you.”

Corson says he has received no information from Tower Health about the impending closure of the Cancer Institute or where he might seek treatment elsewhere. Is that patient-centered care?

“We just finished bargaining for our Union contract with Tower,” says Lori Domin, RN, President of Pottstown Nurses United and a longtime Pottstown Hospital 5th Floor Nurse. “A lot of our negotiating revolved around patient safety and patient care. Yet here we are again, fighting for patient safety and patient care. Time is of the essence during a stroke or a heart attack. Minutes count. With no ICU, patients are going to have to be transferred, travelling a minimum of 45 minutes to get to another facility. So we are really concerned about our patient’s safety.”

“Our members will not stand by silently as this hospital turns its back on the people it exists to serve,” said May. “We will fight — alongside our community — to keep critical care in Pottstown.”

LINK TO VIDEO FOR USE IN COVERAGE: https://we.tl/t-3URA2RbAHm