A New Public Health Campus to Replace a Closed Hospital in West Philadelphia

For many decades, Mercy Catholic Medical Center – Mercy Philadelphia Campus (originally known as Misericordia Hospital when it was founded by the Sisters of Mercy in 1918) at 54th and Cedar Avenue was an anchor health care institution in West Philadelphia, providing essential services to its surrounding communities. When financial difficulties put it at risk of closure in 2020, several health care organizations in the region — including Penn Medicine, Public Health Management Corporation (PHMC), Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia and Independence Blue Cross — formed a coalition to ensure that the hospital campus would continue to connect community residents to essential health services.

But the coalition’s plans extend beyond just keeping the hospital as a traditional safety net. “We want to create an innovative public health campus,” said Dorie Heald, MBA, director of Business Development at UPHS, explaining that the group’s vision is to “transition the hospital into a central medical hub that offers medical, behavioral and social services to meet community needs.”

Read more about the March 2021 transition of Mercy to the new public health campus, and the welcoming of many employees to Penn Medicine’s new HUP—Cedar Avenue facility in HUPdate and in the Philadelphia Inquirer.