According to Springfield officials, the area in dark green is the proposed hospital project off of State Road. The light green was previously approved by Springfield Township, and the yellow area is not currently in consideration.
Despite vocal opposition from Springfield residents, in the early hours of Thursday morning, the Springfield Township Board of Commissioners voted to approve ChristianaCare’s land development application to build a micro-hospital in a residential neighborhood.
Delaware County has seen multiple major hospital closures in the last five years; Delaware County Memorial Hospital and Springfield Hospital in 2022, and most recently, both Taylor Hospital and Crozer-Chester Medical Center in April 2025. The fifth most populous county in Pennsylvania has just two remaining hospitals to serve 585,000 residents: Mercy Fitzgerald in Darby and Riddle Hospital in Media.
ChristianaCare cited the resulting Delaware County healthcare crisis as a reason why the micro-hospital is necessary. According to ChristianaCare, the neighborhood hospital will feature 10 inpatient beds and an emergency department equipped to handle falls, injuries, heart attacks and strokes. It will also offer diagnostic services including CT scans, ultrasound, X-rays and lab tests. With Thursday’s approval from the Board of Commissioners, the hospital will be built at 351 North State Road.
Although the Board of Commissioners meeting began on schedule at 8 p.m. Wednesday night, the final vote was not held until 12:33 a.m. Thursday morning. Residents were not allowed to testify until 11:12 p.m. Wednesday night. Because of the long presentations, many residents who showed up at 8 p.m. had to leave before they were able to speak. Residents viewing the meeting via Facebook livestream took to the comment section and expressed that they felt it was intentional on the township’s part.
When the Board of Commissioners finally voted, both of their votes – on a zoning amendment, and then on approving ChristianaCare’s development – were locked at 3-3.
Jeffrey Rudolph, president of the board, broke both ties in favor, resulting in two 4-3 votes in favor. On both votes, Edward Kelly, James Kennedy and Megan Cortese voted no; Gina Sage, Kevin Dion and Robert Layden Jr. voted yes.
Before he cast his deciding vote on the land development, President Jeffrey Rudolph spoke directly to the Springfield residents in attendance.
“This has probably been the biggest land development deal in this town for the last 40 years,” Rudolph said. “I’ve heard everybody’s voice, I’ve listened, but we also have a duty to provide proper services in this town.”
Residents were visibly angry and left the meeting as soon as the results were announced.
The future location, 351 North State Road, is currently an area of green space. ChristianaCare lawyer Mark D. Damico noted that the property had been approved in 2018 for 140 townhouses, 14 assisted living residences and a three-story medical facility, but that these plans did not come to fruition due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
When Springfield residents were finally able to speak at 11:12 p.m., many people who wished to speak had already left. Those who remained cited concerns ranging from loss of green space to decreased property value.
Ruth Rohner, who lives on Broadview Road half a mile from the future hospital, cited an advisory from the Pennsylvania Realtors Association that indicates that each Springfield resident within half a mile of the hospital should expect a 7.6% decrease in their home value. That loss averages out to around $45,000 per household, for a total loss of about $58 million across the 1300 homes within that range.
ChristianaCare is also building a neighborhood hospital in Aston. That hospital has received a much more positive reaction from the community, but Rohner reminded the Springfield commissioners that the situations are different because Aston’s location offers a half-mile buffer from any residences. In Springfield, 200 residences are less than 600 feet from the hospital, 600 homes are within a quarter mile, and 1300 are within a half mile. All these homes will be affected by ambulance noise and by property value decreases.
“Why did ChristianaCare establish a half a mile buffer for residents in Aston while leaving Springfield without any buffer?” Rohner asked.
“Can’t Christiana do in Springfield what they did in Aston, and provide a hospital without being a detriment to the community? And will a mini hospital really satisfy the demand, or just detract value from the homes of all Springfield residents?”
Springfield resident Nick DeLuca voiced his concerns about the hospital’s impact on Springfield’s traffic patterns, saying that the roads surrounding the area are already regularly backed up during rush hour.
“You just talked about 200-some cars in an hour. Adding to that traffic. You’ll die before you get to the hospital,” DeLuca said.
Other residents referred to the hospital as a “band-aid over a huge problem,” citing the 550 hospital beds Delaware County lost with the closures of Crozer-Chester Medical Center and Taylor Hospital. Some residents suggested adding the issue to a referendum in November and letting the people vote on it.
“None of this feels right to me,” said Ben Scolina, who lives on Rolling Road and has safety concerns when it comes to raising his children. He voiced his concerns about the ongoing mental health crisis in Delaware County, and his worries that those mental health patients will now end up on his doorstep.
“Where are they going to go? They’re going to walk down State Road? Walk into Drexeline, go to the Wawa, harass people at the Wawa? Maybe they’re going to show up on my doorstep on State Road,” Scolina said.
“I don’t begrudge anyone having a mental health crisis. They should be taken care of. But they’re not going to be taken care of here, and then it’s going to be our problem, and it’s going to be the police’s problem, and it’s going to be our tax dollars taking care of it.”
Darren Bolton, who lives on Windsor Circle, spoke about his dislike of people “trying to make it seem as though [Springfield owes] it to Delaware County to step up and add a hospital.”
“We don’t. There are other towns in Delaware County not named Springfield that have larger populations that would be much better positioned to house a serious facility that would actually serve our community and our county,” Bolton said.
Only one resident spoke up in agreement with the proposal: Andrew Cook, who lives on Broadview Road.
“I love the idea that I don’t have to go down and wait five hours, if my kid has a problem, just to get it checked out,” Cook said.
“If you’ve been to the emergency centers, there’s nothing urgent, there’s nothing emergency about it… Why say no to something that’s a positive?”
ChristianaCare’s Springfield neighborhood hospital is tentatively scheduled to open in 2026.
