{"id":242396,"date":"2026-01-17T03:34:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T03:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/242396\/"},"modified":"2026-01-17T03:34:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T03:34:08","slug":"local-geisinger-hospitals-above-capacity-at-historic-levels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/242396\/","title":{"rendered":"Local Geisinger hospitals above capacity at ‘historic levels’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Geisinger officials grappling with packed emergency departments and inpatient units are imploring the public to consider the most appropriate points of care as the health system\u2019s hospitals in Lackawanna and Luzerne counties operate above capacity at historic levels not seen even during the heights of the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a plea prompted by a recent surge in respiratory virus cases and an inrush of local patients picking Geisinger as their health care provider, including some switching health systems as Commonwealth Health\u2019s hospitals, particularly those in Scranton, face uncertain futures amid a pending ownership change.<\/p>\n

Against that backdrop, Geisinger Community Medical Center in Scranton, Geisinger South Wilkes-Barre in the Diamond City and Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center in Plains Twp. are caring for more patients now than during the pandemic\u2019s peak, Geisinger officials said this week.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd one of the reasons why we are having this surge \u2026 is the respiratory virus, and at the same time we have more people choosing Geisinger because of the situation, the ground situation, in the other hospitals,\u201d said Ujwal Tuladhar, M.D., a board-certified hospital medicine specialist who serves as associate chief medical officer of Geisinger Community Medical Center. \u201cIt\u2019s a combination of both, but at the current moment it\u2019s more of the respiratory virus, though more patients coming to Geisinger because of the Commonwealth situation has exacerbated it further.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought COVID times were high, but this is way, way above what we had at that time,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The respiratory virus activity Tuladhar referenced includes influenza, RSV and COVID-19, with a mutated strain of flu called subclade K driving a surge in flu cases health officials here and elsewhere have highlighted in recent weeks. And while the Pennsylvania Department of Health\u2019s respiratory virus dashboard<\/a> showed statewide flu activity \u201cdecreasing rapidly\u201d during its most recent weekly update \u2014 the next update is Tuesday \u2014 it also cautioned that flu activity may increase again.<\/p>\n

Statewide RSV and COVID-19 activity was \u201cdecreasing slightly\u201d and \u201cstable,\u201d respectively, according to the online dashboard.<\/p>\n

All three of the aforementioned Geisinger hospitals \u2014 GCMC, GWV and South Wilkes-Barre \u2014 were operating above 100% capacity when Tuladhar outlined the situations there in a Wednesday interview. That was still the case at GCMC and South Wilkes-Barre as of Friday morning, when GWV was at about 95% capacity, Geisinger spokesman Matt Mattei said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut our clinical leaders think that is an outlier,\u201d Mattei said of the dip at GWV. \u201cThis trend has been pretty consistent since the beginning of the year, so we don\u2019t know what tomorrow brings. I don\u2019t think there\u2019s any way to tell that that\u2019s a good sign yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kali Gargone, a registered nurse who works in the surgical department at GCMC and serves as membership chair of the Northeast Pennsylvania Nurses Association, the local union representing nurses there, also spoke to the capacity challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been operating at high capacities since COVID,\u201d she said. \u201cRecently, I mean you go into the ER and there\u2019s patients lining the hallway. Every open space has turned into a patient-care area. We are very overwhelmed. Not only is it flu season for the community, it\u2019s also flu season for the staff that live in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pressures Gargone and Geisinger officials described aren\u2019t limited to emergency care.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot only just for our regular (medical-surgical) beds, but particularly for our higher level of care beds, our ICU and our stepdown beds, are at 100% capacity almost every day if not every day, so there\u2019s always a patient shuffle,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

The capacity crunch underscores the importance of seeking care in the proper settings, be it via telehealth or at a primary care provider\u2019s office, walk-in clinic or hospital emergency department, to avoid adding unnecessary strain to a system already bursting at the seams.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really need our community \u2026 to go to the most appropriate location for their care, and within Geisinger there are different levels of care that are available,\u201d Tuladhar said. \u201cIf you have, say, mild to moderate respiratory virus symptoms and you think you can be treated at home with rest and hydration and over-the-counter medication, please stay home. Now, we request that you only come to the emergency (department) if you feel this is really severe and it\u2019s life threatening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Geisinger provided information on where and under what circumstances patients should pursue care depending on the severity of their symptoms and conditions. While those with mild symptoms from flu or other viruses can generally treat them at home with rest, fluids and medicine like acetaminophen and ibuprofen to manage pain and fever, people who need to see a clinician because of flu symptoms should start with their primary care provider.<\/p>\n

\u201cGeisinger PCPs sometimes have same-day appointments available by calling primary care offices early in the day,\u201d the system noted. \u201cGeisinger patients can call 800-275-6401 and say \u2018schedule an appointment for primary care\u2019 or use MyChart to find the direct line for their primary care clinic in their appointment reminders.\u201d<\/p>\n

Urgent care locations can also treat less-serious illnesses and injuries \u201cfaster than providers can in the hospital setting,\u201d per Geisinger, whose ConvenientCare clinics accept walk-in and scheduled patients. They\u2019re \u201cideal for urgent treatment of respiratory viruses and other seasonal illnesses, allergies, skin rashes, sprains and strains, tick removal and ear, throat and urinary infections.\u201d<\/p>\n

Patients can reserve spots and check wait times at ConvenientCare clinics by visiting geisinger.org and clicking the \u201cConvenientCare<\/a>\u201d link under the \u201cFind Care\u201d tab at the top of the website.<\/p>\n

Geisinger also operates ConvenientCare+ locations at the Geisinger South Wilkes-Barre hospital campus and at its Geisinger Tunkhannock facility in Wyoming County, offering \u201cmore advanced treatment for non-life-threatening emergencies, such as nebulizer treatment for breathing issues, IV fluids and IV medications.\u201d Those more advanced treatments complement the same services provided at traditional ConvenientCare clinics.<\/p>\n

A virtual urgent care option is also available.<\/p>\n

Presenting at the wrong point of care \u2014 a hospital emergency department for mild flu symptoms, for example \u2014 when another, more-suitable location would suffice can compound strain on the system and make for a frustrating visit, with longer wait times likely for patients with less-serious conditions.<\/p>\n

It can also create \u201ca delay in taking care of those patients that actually need it, especially patients with strokes, heart attacks or acute respiratory illnesses that need to be addressed immediately,\u201d Tuladhar said. \u201cWe do a pretty good job of trying to triage and trying to address the serious ones first, but when you have so many of those patients out there having to triage it does take away a lot of time addressing those patients that need more intense therapy and immediate care.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cGetting care in the right setting can help the people in our community, and of course it can relieve some pressure on our over-stressed local hospitals,\u201d he said in closing. \u201cI cannot stress this enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AA patient occupies a room in the ER of Geisinger Community Medical Center in Scranton Friday, January 16, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG \/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
\n\"RegisteredRegistered nurse Donna Stobodzian and AEMT (Advanced Emergency Medical Technician) student Alyssa Quinn work in the emergency room at Geisinger Community Medical Center in Scranton Friday, January 16, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG \/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
\n\"RegisteredRegistered nurse Natalie Wojtak closes the curtain to create privacy for a patient in the emergency room at Geisinger Community Medical Center in Scranton Friday, January 16, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG \/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
\n\"RegisteredRegistered nurses work in the emergency room hallway at Geisinger Community Medical Center in Scranton Friday, January 16, 2026. (SEAN MCKEAG \/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Geisinger officials grappling with packed emergency departments and inpatient units are imploring the public to consider the most…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":242397,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[163,521,85,46,38486,224,38487,43,11663,130340,130341,130342],"class_list":{"0":"post-242396","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel","12":"tag-lackawanna-county","13":"tag-local-news","14":"tag-luzerne-county","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-pennsylvania","17":"tag-plains-township","18":"tag-scranton","19":"tag-wilkes-barre"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}