WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — Chelsey Alfieri spent days not knowing where she was going to deliver her baby. She was scheduled for a C-section at Wilkes-Barre General at the beginning of August, but she just found out her OB/GYN is being forced to close by July 31.
"I cried because I'm in a really vulnerable state right now, being 30 weeks pregnant with my second, but then I was angry."
That anger comes from concern for how the closure of several clinics will impact women in her community.
This is a list of the OB/GYN providers affiliated with Commonwealth Health in Wilkes-Barre that have to shut down:
The clinics of Dr. Theresa Baseski, Dr. Jeremy Celestine, Dr. Antea Singleton, Dr. Michael Socher, Catherine Forlenza, CRNP, Rachel Yenkowski, CRNP, and Deborah Zbegner, CRNP, will be ending with Commonwealth Health Physician Network effective July 31, 2023. Dr. Michael Tedesco was already scheduled to retire from his clinic effective June 16, 2023.
The closures are on top of Wilkes-Barre General Hospital ending childbirth services on the same date.
"When I was told I had to find a new OB in these next nine weeks, I am technically considered priority because I am in the third trimester of pregnancy. And I was told by three different places because they couldn't get me in or because they weren't taking on new patients," Alfieri said.
Commonwealth Health says gynecology services will still be available at the hospital. But we spoke to one of the doctors who is about to lose their job and wanted to remain anonymous.
They tell us while there are doctors with private practices who operate out of Wilkes-Barre General Hospital, they're already overwhelmed with patients as it is.
The doctor and Alfieri worry about patients who don't have the resources to travel to a provider who's farther away.
Alfieri finally got an appointment at Moses Taylor in Scranton, about 40 minutes from her home in Tunkhannock.
"Very high-stress. I was in tears a lot. Because how do you trust somebody in nine weeks to do something for you and your body and your baby when I've trusted this person that I've had for years?"
Commonwealth Health also says employees losing their clinics can apply for jobs at other hospitals in the network.