Wilkes-Barre General Hospital Discontinuing Inpatient Childbirth Services After July 11, 2023
7/11/2023
To ensure patient safety, Wilkes-Barre General Hospital will end childbirth services effective July 11, 2023 at 11:59 PM. Despite efforts to do so, the hospital is not able to secure necessary staffing on the unit. After today, the hospital will no longer provide planned inpatient labor and delivery services. Gynecological services and surgeries will continue to be provided at the hospital.
Hospital leaders have worked with obstetricians to support an orderly transition of over a hundred patients’ non-emergent deliveries to Moses Taylor Hospital and approximately fifteen to Geisinger Wyoming Valley. Expectant mothers will continue to have local options for receiving childbirth services at Moses Taylor Hospital, Geisinger Wyoming Valley and Geisinger Community Medical Center.
The hospital will continue to work with providers of the ten remaining women who had planned to deliver at the Wilkes-Barre facility after July 11 to transition their care to another area hospital that offers childbirth services. Patients with questions are encouraged to talk with their provider on their next office visit or call the hospital's patient advocate at 570-552-1283.
Dr. Theresa Baseski, Dr. Antea Singleton, Dr. Michael Socher, Catherine Forlenza, CRNP, Rachel Yenkowski, CRNP and Deborah Zbegner, CRNP will be ending their practices with Commonwealth Health Physician Network as planned effective July 31, 2023.
“Transitioning the care for all of our patients and supporting safe deliveries has been our priority since announcing this transition. We will continue applying our resources on the clinical services that are increasingly utilized by our community such as orthopedics, cardiology, urology and bariatric surgery,” said Wilkes-Barre General Hospital CEO, Simon Ratliff. "Our recruitment of skilled specialist physicians to join our medical staff and investments for these vital services means more patients have been able to stay in the Wyoming Valley for their care.”
As part of the growing full-service cardiac program available at Wilkes-Barre General Hospital, physicians and staff from the hospital’s structural heart program recently performed their first transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) procedure in June.
Board-certified cardiothoracic surgeon Charles Geller, M.D. and board-certified general surgeon Mustapha Daouadi, M.D., who specializes in bariatric procedures, have joined Commonwealth Health Physician Network and the medical staff at Wilkes-Barre General Hospital in June.
Patients who are experiencing a medical emergency – obstetrics-related or otherwise – can be assured that Wilkes-Barre General Hospital’s emergency department has an experienced team trained to provide safe emergency medical care.
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