Commonwealth Health Wilkes-Barre General Hospital

1/23/2019

Commonwealth Health Wilkes-Barre General Hospital contributed to the community in 2018 in many ways beyond providing quality medical care. As one of Luzerne County’s largest private employers, we contribute to the local economy by paying property and sales taxes, providing jobs and through sponsorships and donations to local organizations and groups.

We support local vendors through purchases and services and our employees do the same. We support local organizations and events through both our participation and our financial sponsorships.

We continue to expand our services in order to keep out commitment to providing the community with the highest quality care.

The highlight of 2018 was the completion of a $40 million expansion project and the opening of a two-story, 34-room intensive care unit and critical care unit. The project also included the addition of a helipad and the renovation of approximately 200 patient rooms and the conversion of most semi-private rooms into private rooms.

In 2018, Wilkes-Barre General Hospital provided quality care in the form of:

• More than 53,000 emergency department visits
• More than 17,000 inpatient visits
• More than 14,000 surgeries
• More than 1,000 births
• More than 1 million outpatient visits

Our financial benefits to the community last year include:

• More than $9 million in capital investments
• More than $4 million paid in property and sales taxes
• More than $35 million in charity and uncompensated care
• More than $32 million spent locally
• More than $105,000 in donations and outreach contributions

Some of the highlights of the past year:

• With all Commonwealth Health hospitals, contracted with UPMC Health Plan to provides in-network access to UPMC Health Plan members
• With other Commonwealth Health acute care hospitals, entered into a partnership with Jefferson Neuroscience Network for a stroke telemedicine program
• Opened a walk-in clinic at 610 Wyoming Ave., Kingston
• Expanded services at the Nanticoke Medical Center to include vascular surgery and wound care
• Extended online scheduling to all Commonwealth Health Physician Network primary care providers through our InQuicker program
• Instituted MDSave which allows patients to buy services online, saving up to 60 percent on some imaging procedures
• Expanded our robotic-assisted surgical program with the addition of a second robot
• Added primary care provider Devin Carey, M.D., Shavertown Clinic.Added specialists including neurologists Frank Chen Zhang, M.D., and Philip Savia, M.D.; interventional cardiologist Daniel Tsyvine, M.D.; Intensivist Abhishek Freyer, M.D.;
• Held a successful Mammothon in October, calling on women who were past due for their annual mammograms, scheduling this important screening
• Offered free hernia screenings for the community in January and November

Acccreditations we received in 2018:

• The Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval® for Wound Healing Care Center
• 2018 Lester Verano Advocacy Award by the National Alliance on Mental Illness Luzerne-Wyoming Counties Chapter to the Commonwealth Health Crisis Response and Recover Center
• Reaccredited as a Level II trauma center by the Pennsylvania Trauma Systems Foundation
• Held seminars on orthopedics, men’s health and stroke support and an eight-week smoking cessation program
• Reaccredited as a full Chest Pain Center
• Earned full Cardiac Catheterization Lab accreditation
• Advanced Center for Rehabilitation, an acute inpatient rehabilitation facility, was ranked in the Top 10 percent in the United States and was reaccredited by the Commission on Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities
• Designated a Lung Cancer Screening Center by the American College of Radiology
• Bariatric Center accredited as a designated center under the Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery Accreditation and Quality Improvement Program (MBSAQIP®), and recorded its 1,000th surgical since the program's inception in 2010
• Earned Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval® for spine surgery certification and microdiscectomy certification.

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