Tyler Memorial Hospital Will Transition to Urgent Care and Outpatient Services Center
7/26/2021
Hospital to End Acute Inpatient, Surgical and Emergency Room Services
Tyler Memorial Hospital today announced plans to transition operations to focus on outpatient services, ending emergency room services after 11:59 p.m. on October 23, 2021; admissions for acute inpatient care and surgical services will stop earlier.
Healthcare resources to help people get well and live healthier will remain in place locally. The facility will begin operating as an urgent care and outpatient clinic on October 24, 2021, offering treatment for minor illnesses and non-life-threatening injuries. It will also offer physicals, immunizations and outpatient services such as diagnostic imaging and lab draws. Commonwealth Health Emergency Medical Services (CHEMS) will continue to station an ambulance on site for timely response to emergencies and facilitating any needed transfers.
Meetings were held with the Pennsylvania Department of Health to discuss focusing facility operations on the highest level of services the community has demonstrated it wants to use. Despite investments in the Tyler Memorial Hospital facility and equipment to provide for growth, efficiencies for staff and improved care for patients so people can access services close to home, community usage has steadily declined over the past four years – even at the height of the pandemic.
Many of Tyler’s ED patients suffer from illnesses and nonlife-threatening injuries that can be appropriately treated by an urgent care center or physician’s office. Of the patients who need inpatient care, many require specialized treatment that Tyler does not provide; such patients are stabilized, then transferred to one of the larger acute care hospitals in Scranton or Wilkes-Barre.
Discussions with the state have included potentially operating a freestanding emergency department with two supporting inpatient beds for observation, but the state requires ten inpatient beds to support an emergency room. The average daily inpatient census at Tyler Memorial Hospital has been less than 10 patients since 2013. We will continue to work with the Pennsylvania Department of Health on alternate options for access to care for our community.
Acute inpatient, surgery and emergency care are readily available at Moses Taylor Hospital, Regional Hospital of Scranton and Wilkes-Barre General Hospital. As part of the Commonwealth Health network, the new urgent care and outpatient clinic will maintain a strong relationship with them.
Every caregiver at Tyler Memorial Hospital is valued for the important part they play in caring for patients. Commonwealth Health will work to retain as many employees as possible to staff the new urgent care and outpatient clinic and offer opportunities for positions at other network facilities.
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