SCRANTON, Pa. — Help is on the way for doctors, nurses, and patients at Regional Hospital in Scranton.
The hospital, which is part of Commonwealth Health, will be receiving support from a federal EMS "Strike Team" to help with the influx of COVID-19 patients.
In a statement to Newswatch 16, Commonwealth Health says the hospital was selected to have military clinicians on site to assist with staffing to expand hospital beds and EMS capacity for our region.
"The alternative care site will provide additional capacity in northeastern Pennsylvania to help support Geisinger, Endless Mountains, Barnes Kasson, and Wayne Memorial as well as the rest of the Commonwealth Health Network. A centralized transfer process is being established by the PA Department of Health to utilize this enhanced capacity for patients across the region," says Annmarie Poslock with Commonwealth Health.
The news comes just two days after Lackawanna County declared a state of emergency to combat Omicron, the latest COVID-19 variant.
"This comes here at a perfect time for us here in Lackawanna County with the federal government coming in because they are bringing in staff. It's not necessarily actual beds. Yeah, they're going to bring equipment; there's no doubt about that. I mean, that's part of it, too. But the staffing is really the most vital and important part of what's going to happen over the next couple of weeks," says Brian Jeffers, Chief of Staff in Lackawanna County.
Bruce Beauvais is a paramedic and operations manager for Pennsylvania Ambulance. He believes the federal aid will benefit emergency medical services.
"This will be actually a very big help for the EMS community, and not only keeping the ERs a little bit clear, making our wait times less, thus making ambulances more available for EMS calls," says Bruce Beauvais, manager of Pennsylvania Ambulance Operations.
"We're grateful to the federal government and the state for the allocation, but of course, this is not a panacea. This does not solve the problem. So yeah, I mean, the ERs are still overfull. We still really, really need people to be safe. You know, don't get together with people for New Year if you don't have to," says Mayor Paige Cognetti of Scranton.
The exact number of individuals to be deployed is still to be determined.
The Strike Team is scheduled to arrive in the area on or around January 3rd and will be here for 30 days.
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