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Special Care Hospital in Nanticoke gets $381,000 from federal government.
Carol Tischler and Sophie Staronka, both of Nanticoke, chat while waiting for the announcement from U.S. Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski that Mercy Special Care Hospital will get $381,000 for special equipment.
Clark Van Orden/The Times Leader
NANTICOKE – Mercy Special Care Hospital will use a $381,000 grant from the federal government to fund a portion of the hospital’s capital upgrades in Nanticoke and at its satellite hospital in Scranton.
“Receiving this grant money allows us to purchase the equipment we need and that our patients and staff need to provide safety, quality in-patient care,” said Bob Williams, hospital administrator.
The planned purchases include 67 state-of-the art computerized beds, wheelchairs, tables and chairs to be used in the rooms to ensure the safety of patients and staff. After the money was secured in mid-March, the hospital purchased 20 of the beds and plans to purchase the remainder soon.
The Nanticoke hospital can accommodate 47 patients for short-term rehabilitation and Scranton has 20 beds.
Cabinets will also be added to some rooms to provide extra storage for equipment and supplies.
Williams said the beds are a great investment because patients can be weighed without getting out of bed and be lowered to help patients get out of the bed, reducing the number of falls. The beds also will benefit the nursing staff because they can be moved more easily and allow patients to be repositioned with less difficulty during medical treatments.
Mercy Special Care is the only hospital in Luzerne County to receive this much funding this year from the federal government, said U.S. Rep. Paul Kanjorski, D-Nanticoke. He said federal awards were based on what agencies need assistance the most to improve the community’s life.
“Down here, it was determined to improve the quality of life by improving the place that most patients spend the most time – the bed by making it more comfortable for them and more useful,” Kanjorski said.
Mercy Health Partners President and Chief Operating Officer Kevin Cook said this project is part of the hospital’s ongoing commitment to Nanticoke as it continues to renovate the hospital.
“We understand that for a community to care about a hospital, the hospital has to demonstrate its care for the community one patient at a time, one day at a time, one interaction at a time,” Cook said.
The Nanticoke hospital has been run and operated by Mercy Health Partners since 1994. For 75 years prior to that, the hospital was a state-run facility created to care for coal miners.