Geisinger Wyoming Valley expansion will nearly double hospital’s size

PLAINS TWP. — Geisinger Wyoming Valley Hospital will nearly double in size through expansion plans unveiled, literally, Wednesday morning.

The $900 million project includes an 11-story “bed tower” with private patient rooms, increasing emergency room and operating room capacity by about 50% each, roughly doubling Intensive Care Unit capacity, and expanding the cardiac care program. All told, it will add nearly 600,000 square feet to the existing 700,000 square-foot complex.

“We run at over 100% capacity” in patient beds, Geisinger Northeast Chief Administrative Officer Ron Beer said as three architectural renderings and one three-dimension model sat under white cloth, waiting to be revealed. Once the bed tower is complete, additional work will be done to existing patient rooms to make the hospital 100% private rooms.

Private rooms have been proven to improve patient outcome, increase communication with doctors and health care providers, and allow greater space for visiting relatives and friends, Beer said. Switching to private rooms will also improve the use of Geisinger Wyoming Valley as a teaching hospital with more space for visiting students.

After the unveiling, Beer also said the hospital plans to install digital whiteboards that can display information for patients, including photos and descriptions of their providers, and information on who has been checking in on them in the room during the night.

The expansion will include “respite” space for staff as well, Beer said, providing a chance to “catch their breath” when things get hectic. Advanced security features are planned, including metal detectors and increased use of “personal duress” devices attached to name tags that a staff member can press if they feel threatened, summoning nearby staff. And Geisinger is considering expanding its K-9 core to bring some dogs to the Wyoming Valley facility. The dogs have proven both capable of sniffing out explosives and guns and calming situations by their mere presence.

Staff will also expand substantially over time, adding about 400 employees, Interim Vice-President of Facilities and Planning Dan Landesberg said. The bed tower is expected to open in 2028 with additional work and renovations completed in 2030.

Drawings and the model showed the expansion being added in the southeast corner of the hospital, behind the recently expanded Henry Cancer Center and existing bed tower, as a person faces the center and the west lobby entrance. A new east entrance and lobby will be part of the new section. And a bridge link will connect the new addition — and thus the rest of the hospital — to a Medical Office Building and garage already under construction (expected to be completed early next year).

Beer and Geisinger President/Chief Executive Officer Dr. Jaewon Ryu both touted the move as a continuation of the health care company’s ongoing expansion of services throughout Luzerne County, including the expansion of the Henry Cancer Center completed last year, expansion of services at Geisinger South Wilkes-Barre, and the Geisinger HealthPlex CenterPoint opened near Pittston. With this expansion, they said, Geisinger has invested about $1.4 billion in the county in recent years.

“We have (a) systematically built and integrated system conveniently located where it is needed most,” Beer said.

While the expansion comes on the heels of the recent announcement that Geisinger will be acquired as the first health system of Risant, a non profit being created by health giant Kaiser Permanente, Landesberg said it is not related to that change. The expansion is part of an ongoing multi-phase strategic plan for modernization in the area.