ChristianaCare and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) announce a new partnership beginning in spring 2026 to bring more pediatric services to Delaware and surrounding communities.
ChristianaCare’s Chief Medical Officer Kert Anzilotti says the collaboration will start in the acute care setting and aim to expand pediatric cervical services, cardiology and neurology services and neonatology among others.
"We’ll also have access to some of CHOP’s network of subspecialty care throughout the region so that some of our physicians both in the acute spaces and out in our broad network of ambulatory practices will be able to work in collaboration with some of their specialists so that we, again, can provide world-class pediatric care for the neighbors that we serve," Anzilotti said.
The announcement is a noticeable snub for Delaware’s only pediatric hospital Nemours Children's Health.
Nemours released a statement following the announcement saying it had "hoped to collaborate more closely with ChristianaCare," but it "respects the system’s decision to engage an out-of-state provider."
Anzilotti says the decision to partner with CHOP was taken very seriously, but the system continues to value its partnership with Nemours.
“We anticipate that we will continue to collaborate with Nemours as we both serve the same community in Delaware and in adjacent states. CHOP seemed like the best offering and the best opportunity as we did a very in-depth analysis," he said.
Nemours's statement reiterated their recently announced $130 million capital investment in their Delaware hospital which they say will “ensure that children do not need to leave the state for even the most complex care.”
The partnership also comes amid ChristianaCare's lawsuit against the newly created Diamond State Hospital Cost Review Board (DSHCRB), a politically appointed body tasked with reviewing hospital budgets to curb rising healthcare costs.
The health system's partnership with CHOP is just one of its latest announcements to bolster healthcare services in Delaware following the board's creation last year.
Earlier this month, ChristianaCare released a statement announcing its plan to invest more than $865 million in Delaware over the next three years.
"At a time when there is uncertainty about the future of heath care in the U.S., ChristianaCare is doubling its investment in this community. The organization is sending a clear signal that it will lean in and do even more to support, expand and connect health care services across the state," the statement reads.
When asked if the new partnership and recent investments having anything to do with publicly showcasing care expansion in light of the board’s creation, Anzilotti said: "I don’t see any connection to the CHOP partnership and the Hospital Cost Review Board. We are every day striving to take care of the community that we serve, regardless of where we’re at in various litigations or relationships with stakeholders," he said.
Former Delaware Secretary of Finance David Singleton was recently named chair of the DSHCRB, and when asked for his thoughts on ChristianaCare's recent announcements and how they correlate to the board's creation, he said: "I’ve been delighted to see the recent announcements by several of the hospitals, so that’s great news. We don’t regulate that, obviously. We're there to look at their budgets, and the concern that led to this legislation is that spending by the hospitals has been growing much faster than the benchmark that they’ve been asked to meet," Singelton said. "We certainly support excellent healthcare, and improvements are great to see, and it’s certainly not our job to look at the improvements they’re planning or to regulate those, we’re purely looking at expenditures."
The Delaware Court of Chancery recently rejected the state's motion to dismiss ChristianaCare's lawsuit.
