Pocono News Section

Big changes proposed for Wilkes-Barre General

Big changes proposed for Wilkes-Barre General - Wednesday, August 20, 2008 at 6:06PM EST

Wednesday, Aug 20, 2008 @ 06:06pm EST

WILKES-BARRE, LUZERNE COUNTY- Community Health Systems is buying Wyoming Valley Health Care system. It could mean big things for

Wilkes-Barre General

Hospital . WVHCS chairman Rusty Flack says "It's been made very clear to us that this acquisition is a big acquisition for them. We'll be one of their biggest hospitals. And it will be a flagship hospital for their company."

Wyoming Valley Health System chairman Rusty Flack says a new emergency room is proposed. 40 new intensive care unit beds and a new cancer treatment unit is also in the final plan. "That will be a serious, serious cancer center, and it will be one of the strongest around if not the."

Flack won't say how much community health services, or CHS, is spending to purchase Wyoming Valley Healthcare System. He says the move will free Wilkes-Barre General of its debt. Some nurses say change is good, but want the level of care to stay the same. Maria Pacchioni is a Wilkes-Barre General nurse and says, "We'd like some improvements but we also need the nurses to man those emergency rooms and the hospital itself."

Right now Wyoming Valley Health System is a non-profit organization. CHS is a "for profit", or private company. Some nurses say the change could jeopardize the uninsured. Wilkes-Barre General nurse Francis Prusinski says, "Profit hospitals, private, they have a tendency not to have charity cases. So that concerned us for the people who are not insured. "

Wyoming

Valley says not to worry. "That's been taken care of and they have absolutely committed to continuing the policies that exist today," says Flack. And issues like this will be hammered out in the next 90 days. That's how long it will take for the sale to be finalized. After a 90 day process, the sale needs the approval of the attorney general. CHS already owns two hospitals in our area. One is in Berwick and the other in Sunbury.