SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA CO. (WOLF) \u2014 The future of three of Northeast Pennsylvania\u2019s largest hospitals is now in new hands.<\/p>\n
Healthcare leaders confirm Tenor Health Foundation has finalized its takeover of Regional Hospital of Scranton, Moses Taylor Hospital, and Wilkes-Barre General Hospital, ending months of negotiations, regulatory hurdles, and uncertainty surrounding the fate of critical healthcare services in the region.<\/p>\n
The hospitals were previously owned by for-profit Community Health Systems. When CHS announced plans to sell, fears quickly spread among patients, staff, and local leaders, with concerns over potential closures, layoffs, and disruptions to emergency and specialty care across Lackawanna and Luzerne counties.<\/p>\n
For frontline healthcare workers, the final approval brings long-awaited relief.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis past year, it’s been the stress and anxiety of not knowing, are we going to have a job next year, is the hospital shutting down, what\u2019s happening? So, the stress from all that is over,” said SEIU Chapter President and occupational therapist, Corinne Cianfichi said.<\/p>\n
Cianfichi says workers are cautiously optimistic, but clear about their expectations for the new ownership.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are expecting them to do right by us. We need them to make sure that they\u2019re going to maintain current services. Preserve good union jobs. We need them to expand services, bring back the doctors and the services that have gone by, and nurses,” said Cianfichi.<\/p>\n
Union leaders say Tenor Health has already agreed to honor their contract, a development they say provides stability for more than 800 frontline workers at Regional Hospital alone.<\/p>\n
Elected officials say the deal was finalized just in time.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor a while, we came dangerously close a handful of times to having Community Health Systems pull the actual hospital and issue notices of closing,” said Congressman Rob Bresnahan.<\/p>\n
Bresnahan says the final approval through the Department of Health gives patients and providers something they haven\u2019t had in more than a year, certainty.<\/p>\n
\u201cPractitioners, patients, employees, the staff, the providers, they\u2019ve all been on the edge of their seat here for over a year about what healthcare was going to look like, and most importantly if they were going to have a job the next day,” said Bresnahan.<\/p>\n
State Representative Bridget Kosierowski credits hospital staff, foundations, and community partners for keeping the doors open during months of financial strain and negotiations.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Scranton-based hospital system here has been operating with absolutely no resources from CHS because the staff is devoted to patient care. Those are the real heroes here,” said Kosierowski.<\/p>\n
She says local foundations played a critical role in keeping hospitals financially afloat while the state worked to find a long-term solution.<\/p>\n
\u201cNot to forget our foundations that kept those doors open for many months while we were given the time to negotiate with hospital systems to come here and keep these doors open,” said Kosierowski.<\/p>\n
Kosierowski acknowledges Tenor Health faces real challenges moving forward, from aging infrastructure to broader pressures on healthcare systems nationwide.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe big hurdle is financials. The infrastructure is old. It needs a lot of support. But we have a really thriving, unique community here that is giving, and I believe we can be supportive of Tenor,” said Kosierowski.<\/p>\n
She also warns that federal healthcare cuts and rising numbers of uninsured patients will continue to strain hospitals, often pushing people to rely on emergency rooms as primary care.<\/p>\n
Tenor Health specializes in acquiring and stabilizing financially struggling community hospitals. The nonprofit gained national attention after reopening Sharon Regional Medical Center in western Pennsylvania following a temporary closure, a track record many local leaders hope can now be repeated in Northeast Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n
Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti also released a statement saying:<\/p>\n
“Protecting access to health care for Northeastern Pennsylvanians is critically important, which is why I am pleased by today\u2019s decision by the Pennsylvania Department of Health (DOH) approving Tenor Health\u2019s application.<\/p>\n
This means that Moses Taylor, Regional and Wilkes-Barre General hospitals will remain open. In the face of devastating Medicaid cuts and reduced federal funding for healthcare across the Commonwealth, I\u2019m proud that our community came together to advocate for an outcome that will keep our hospitals open for the patients who depend on them for lifesaving care every single day, and that hundreds of hospital staff will remain in the jobs they love.<\/p>\n
I am grateful to Governor Shapiro and his administration, to our state and federal partners, to our community foundations for providing crucial stopgap funding to keep these hospitals operational, and to the SEIU and Commonwealth Health System staff members whose commitment and advocacy helped make this outcome possible.<\/p>\n
Now the even harder work begins, which includes standing up governance structures that put transparency and accountability at the forefront, and keep community healthcare leaders and experts included in decision-making.<\/p>\n
This was a community effort, and I\u2019ll continue to do everything I can to protect and expand access to care here in Northeastern Pennsylvania.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA CO. (WOLF) \u2014 The future of three of Northeast Pennsylvania\u2019s largest hospitals is now in new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":100652,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178,180,179],"class_list":{"0":"post-100651","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-scranton","8":"tag-scranton","9":"tag-scranton-headlines","10":"tag-scranton-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100651","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100651"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100651\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/100652"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100651"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100651"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100651"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}