In order to compete with Geisinger Health System, another company has created a new system including hospitals in Lackawanna, Luzerne, Wyoming, and Columbia counties.
Hospital officials from eight area hospitals, which were all recently bought out by the same company in Tennessee, announced Wednesday that they will be a part of the same umbrella system named Commonwealth Health.
Workers in Scranton spent the afternoon making slight changes to hospital signs in the city. Signs at eight hospitals in Lackawanna, Luzerne, Wyoming and Columbia counties will carry the same short addition, Commonwealth Health, the area’s newest health care system. The hospitals will keep their original names, but carry the same logo.
“People identify with their hospital, as opposed to a system. So, if one was born at Regional Hospital of Scranton or Moses Taylor or Wilkes-Barre General, that’s their hospital, that’s the hospital they identify with, and we hope to retain that,” said Commonwealth Health CEO Cornelio Catena.
Officials with Commonwealth Health said they aim to compete with other health care providers, including the area’s largest, Geisinger Health System.
Commonwealth Health is not as big as Geisinger, employing less than half the people, but officials said uniting the hospitals is a system still has benefits. For patients, centralized medical records will make things easier and for doctors it means better job security.
Some future physicians said it will attract doctors to the area.
“I think some of the turnover has been a little bit detrimental, but I think that now that the system is kind of stabilizing, physicians are going to be more inclined to come to the area because they kind of know what they’re getting into. They’ve seen Geisinger which is a big system, they’ve seen CHS which is a large system, and basically they know what they’re getting into,” said Commonwealth Medical College student Kevin Baker.
