Geisinger is targeting 2026 to begin work on a neonatal intensive care unit at Geisinger Community Medical Center in Scranton, according to a press release touting major investments in the Hill Section hospital.
And while the NICU project would be contained within the hospital’s current footprint, Mayor Paige Gebhardt Cognetti confirmed Monday that her administration is proposing zoning changes in the area of GCMC to accommodate the facility’s physical expansion and help address the region’s pronounced health care needs. The specific zoning changes the Cognetti administration will back were not immediately clear, but the forthcoming proposal comes after a zoning battle in 2022 and 2023 stymied Geisinger’s previous expansion plans for GCMC.
A NICU there providing invaluable intensive medical care for newborns requiring it would complement the NICU at Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center in Plains Twp. Currently the only NICU in Scranton is located at Regional Hospital of Scranton’s Moses Taylor Hospital campus.
Regional and Moses Taylor are included in a pending acquisition deal that would see the nonprofit Tenor Health Foundation acquire Commonwealth Health’s financially struggling Scranton hospitals and Wilkes-Barre General Hospital from for-profit Community Health Systems Inc., Commonwealth’s Tennesse-based parent company. Local officials have expressed cautious optimism about the sale amid concern that Regional and Moses Taylor, and the NICU there, could close absent acquisition by a new buyer.
The press release Geisinger issued Monday says renovations are underway to add 19 new postpartum beds and more “pre-and post-operative care to GCMC’s labor and delivery capacity,” a project that’s expected to reach a 12-bed milestone next month and be completed in April.
“To provide more onsite care for newborns, GCMC has upgraded its nursery from a well-baby nursery to a continuing care nursery capable of caring for babies who may need help breathing or regulating their temperature but do not need the higher acuity care of a neonatal intensive care unit,” the release notes. “Geisinger leadership is targeting next year to begin work on a NICU, which, when complete, will provide care for babies with more complicated conditions and need for critical care right in Scranton.”
The hospital is also adding 24 emergency medicine treatment areas to its first floor, addressing a need for more emergency care. That change is made possible by moving a variety of outpatient specialty services from GCMC to Geisinger’s West Olive Street facility at the former Ice Box complex, officials said.
“The multi-faceted plan for improvement within the hospital’s current footprint includes installing a second MRI machine for diagnostic imaging and building an additional suite for endoscopic procedures,” the release notes. “These enhancements to care capacity will be supported by the growth of Geisinger’s patient transport services in Lackawanna County.”
The ongoing and recent renovations, including the “opening or reactivation of 41 inpatient beds earlier this year,” represent a nearly $50 million investment in the city, per the release.
“We are laser-focused on providing as much safe, quality acute care as possible within the bounds of Geisinger Community Medical Center,” Dr. Navneet Dang, GCMC’s chief medical officer, said in Monday’s press release. “As more residents of Lackawanna County and surrounding communities come to us for care, we need all these resources to meet their needs. But to deliver the best care possible, we still need to do much more.”
Geisinger has been grappling with capacity constraints at GCMC, particularly in the hospital’s near-chronically crowded emergency room, for years.
Those challenges motivated Geisinger’s concerted but ultimately fruitless push in 2022 and 2023 for zoning that would accommodate a massive GCMC expansion in the Hill Section.
The zoning issue was contentious and Geisinger’s plans faced opposition from a passionate group of Hill Section neighbors wary of the expansion project’s potential impact on their neighborhood and quality of life.
The neighbors ultimately prevailed in the zoning battle that played out before Scranton City Council, with council voting in April 2023 to amend Scranton’s then-proposed new zoning ordinance and map to change the odd side of Colfax Avenue’s 200 block from a civic zone with a 100-foot building height limit to a town-city institutional zone with a maximum permitted height of 45 feet. The change effectively restricted the height of a new parking garage Geisinger had planned for the odd side of the 200 block, with Geisinger officials describing the garage as an enabling project that would have allowed for the creation of more clinical space.
The zoning amendment was a blow for Geisinger, and the broader GCMC expansion never materialized.
But Geisinger said and Cognetti confirmed Monday that her administration will make another appeal for zoning changes in the interest of increased health care capacity. The changes, which would require council approval, would give Geisinger “the flexibility they need to continue to grow health care here in Scranton,” Cognetti said.
The mayor said the zoning changes would be in areas in the immediate vicinity of the hospital where Geisinger already owns property, including the site of the former John J. Audubon Elementary School in Colfax Avenue’s 400 block.
“We have in Geisinger an institution that has been investing,” Cognetti said. “They want to continue to invest. They need the flexibility with the properties that they own up at GCMC to be able to continue to expand and, as mayor, (I) very adamantly want to see them be able to have that flexibility so we can maintain great health care here in the city.”
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