UPMC to move many services out of hospital
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LOCK HAVEN -- UPMC has announced plans to revamp UPMC Lock Haven Hospital into a new but much scaled-down model.
The model will, essentially, strip the facility down to an outpatient emergency department with related services and scatter employees throughout the region in positions within different UPMC facilities, though some are expected to retain their roles in the emergency department.
The non-profit said it has incurred operating losses of $4.4 million "including physician investment," an indication that these drastic changes are a result of finances and/or staffing issues.
"This conversation is an important part of a larger transformation with respect to how UPMC delivers care and services," said Tyler Wagner, Senior Manager of Public Relations for UPMC.
"UPMC Lock Haven has an average daily volume of eight with 25 licensed beds."
Patti Jackson-Gehris, president of UPMC in North Central Pa., said UPMC Lock Haven's "inpatient hospital admissions have been very low for a long time," adding that national and local trends show an "exponential increase" in patients preferring outpatient services.
The outpatient emergency department is to be staffed 24/7 by a team of physicians and nurses, but the size of this team is unlisted in the press release.
The consolidation of the sprawling hospital on Cree Drive in the city -- connected directly to the 146-bed Susque View Nursing Home -- will cause local residents who need to be hospitalized to be transported further for inpatient care.
The closest option would be Geisinger Jersey Shore Hospital, which is around a 20-minute drive from Lock Haven, or UPMC Williamsport, which takes nearly a half-hour to travel to from Lock Haven.
Services that are necessary to support the operations of the emergency department will remain in place, according to Wagner.
Outpatient services like radiology and laboratory will remain available to outpatient locations within the community.
The only feature of the hospital's campus noted to not be changing is Haven Place, which cares for residents with alzheimer's and dementia.
The UPMC Outpatient Center on High Street in Lock Haven will continue to operate as usual, offering cardiology, orthopedics, sports medicine and rheumatology.
Similarly, the UPMC Outpatient Center located in McElhattan will remain unaffected, continuing to offer preventative medicine, chronic disease management, guidance maintaining healthy lifestyles and treatment of acute illness and injuries.
All of this information equates to the fact that UPMC Lock Haven Hospital -- a historic staple in the community that originally opened in a farmhouse on a hill overlooking the city on Sept. 7, 1897 -- will soon eliminate patient beds, end certain hospital-based services and become an arm of Williamsport UPMC as an Outpatient Emergency Department.
The changes UPMC intends are partly a result of the Pennsylvania Department of Health having revised its regulations to allow and encourage new methods and technology.
These new revisions include "micro-hospitals" which are, according to the Department of Health, acute care hospitals that offer emergency services and maintain facilities for at least ten inpatient beds and a narrow scope of acute care services, meaning no surgical services.
This is formerly known as the "innovative hospital model," the phrase UPMC uses to describe the revisions to Lock Haven Hospital.
An Outpatient Emergency Department or "OED" is simply an outpatient location of a hospital that offers only emergency services. These hospitals are intended to operate in rural areas in accordance with the guidance of the innovative hospital model.
When asked how the model, stated in a press release to be the "first of its kind in the commonwealth," would be an effective business model and cost effective for a rural community, officials at UPMC offered no comment.
The conversion of UMPC Lock Haven into an Outpatient Emergency Department will be effective April 20, 2023.
Prior to UPMC's acquisition of Lock Haven Hospital, the local facility experienced some volatile times under a for-profit owner, Community Health System based in Tennessee.
Before the 2017 sale CHS reorganized Lock Haven Hospital and others in smaller markets into a group with the intention of selling that group.
Prior to CHS's acquisition, Lock Haven Hospital was was operated locally by a board of directors of a non-profit corporation.