The parent company of Milton S. Hershey Medical Center plans to build a 108-bed hospital practically across the street from rival West Shore Hospital.
Geisinger Holy Spirit Hospital, Holy Spirit Hospital, Geisinger, Holy Spirit Hospital Camp Hill Pa, Dr. Ryu, Jaewon Ryu, Harvard, Walmart,
The new hospital will have three stories, an emergency room and all private rooms. It will occupy a 44-acre site in the undeveloped Wentworth Corporate Center, near the intersection of I-81 and north of Wertzville Road in Hampden Township.
The announcement is the latest reflection of the aggressive one-upmanship involving the region's health care systems, especially Penn State Health and UPMC Pinnacle, owner of West Shore Hospital.
And it reflects a new reality in health care: Health systems must draw as many patients as possible. Otherwise they risk -- at least in the minds of their CEOs -- inability to fund the latest services, diminishment and possibly extinction.
Penn State Health, parent company of Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, says it will build a hospital in Cumberland County. Dan Gleiter | dgleiter@pennlive.com
It adds a second hospital to an area where, when West Shore Hospital was built four years ago, some observers argued a new hospital wasn't needed, with Holy Spirit Hospital just five miles away in East Pennsboro Township.
That concern proved valid, given that Holy Spirit Hospital, even after becoming part of Geisinger Health System, has seen a major drop in patient volume and revenue since the West Shore Hospital opened, and is struggling, with talk of a possible sale.
That concern proved valid, given that Holy Spirit Hospital, even after becoming part of Geisinger Health System, has seen a major drop in patient volume and revenue since the West Shore Hospital opened, and is struggling, with talk of a possible sale.
West Shore Hospital, meanwhile, has seen high emergency room volume and bed occupancy rates, and strong revenues.
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Yet the other hard reality is that health care systems need to be positioned to draw the best-insured residents living in their service areas, especially older people covered by Medicare.
Being near the I-81/Wertzville Road interchange is a strategically good location, given the ease of access for residents of Cumberland, Perry and northern Dauphin and York counties.
Easy access to Cumberland and Perry is especially attractive, because of their aging and expanding populations, and their concentrations of government employees and retirees with good health benefits.
Those factors had much to do with drawing Geisinger to Holy Spirit, drawing Pinnacle to the Hampden location, and now drawing Penn State Heath.
Being near the I-81/Wertzville Road interchange is a strategically good location, given the ease of access for residents of Cumberland, Perry and northern Dauphin and York counties.
Easy access to Cumberland and Perry is especially attractive, because of their aging and expanding populations, and their concentrations of government employees and retirees with good health benefits.
Those factors had much to do with drawing Geisinger to Holy Spirit, drawing Pinnacle to the Hampden location, and now drawing Penn State Heath.
Penn State Health's new Cumberland County hospital would just just about a half mile away from UPMC Pinnacle West Shore hospital.
While the trend is for people to spend less time in the hospital, hospital systems today offer the full spectrum of medical care, from the family doctor to outpatient surgery and cancer care. Hospitals and ERs are a critical entry point to all those services.
"When we announced our partnership with Highmark Health in December, we said we are focused on building a regional health network that offers comprehensive care closer to where our patients live," Dr. Craig Hillemeier, the CEO of Penn State Health, said in a news release. Hillemeier was referring to the partnership with health insurer Highmark in which the two have pledged to spend $1 billion on additions and upgrades to Penn State Health.
"Cumberland County is booming with growth, and we want to ensure that the families in that area have easy access to high-quality and diverse health care services. This new facility is one way we can deliver on our commitment to ensure patients across the region are within 10 minutes of our Penn State Health primary care providers, 20 minutes of our specialty care providers and 30 minutes of a Penn State Health acute care facility," Hillemeier said.
The new full-service hospital will also house offices for doctors and specialists, and services such as imaging and lab. Penn State Health further said it will have an "open" staff, meaning independent doctors can gain privileges to care for their patients there.
Plans call for construction to begin early next year.
There has long been criticism of hospitals building expensive facilities close together that compete for the same patients, with the argument being they have a high cost, and the cost of the duplication gets imposed on the community in the form of higher health insurance premiums and related fees. But others, including the health system CEOs, argue that having choice and competition is the best way to guarantee the best possible services at the lowest possible costs.
As it stands, we're in a time when the financial pain of health care seems to grow by the month, perhaps rivaling the pain of the ailments. So the proximity of the competing hospitals -- in this case two that seem financially strong and able -- should amount to a laboratory on whether their claims truly lead to better quality and value. The proof of that, it would seem, would be high quality and relatively low costs compared to other regions.
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