What is up with the Penn State Hospitals?

[HarrisburgDave]

I unfortunately spend a great deal of time occupying or visiting hospitals.

Yesterday I found my way down to Lancaster to visit a buddy who is a patient in a beautiful new hospital Penn State built there a couple years ago.

It was 5:00 and my wife and I decided to get some snacks in the huge cafeteria. Nobody was there except one staff at the counter. No visitors, no staff having dinner, nobody.

The parking lot was 2/3 empty.

The hallways were sparsely populated.

A mile away Penn Medicine has a huge medical campus. Downtown they own the former Lancaster General Hospital.

As for Penn State I know Hershey is busy. I don’t know about the new Hampden Twp. Hospital?

Penn State had to spend a couple hundred million building, equipping and staffing the Lancaster facility.

Can anyone shed light on the hospital business Penn State is running?

 

[Nitt1300]

Penn State laughs at light being shed on anything PSU related.

 

[Catch1lion]

Penn State laughs at light being shed on anything PSU related.

I know the president that Penn State Health selected pretty well. He generally has the Midas touch. As a WVU and Pitt grad, he does laugh about anything PSU related except their money.
Penn State Health opens new $375M hospital in Lancaster County (chiefhealthcareexecutive.com)

 

[HarrisburgDave]

I know the president that Penn State Health selected pretty well. He generally has the Midas touch. As a WVU and Pitt grad, he does laugh about anything PSU related except their money.
Penn State Health opens new $375M hospital in Lancaster County (chiefhealthcareexecutive.com)

It’s good to hear they selected a good administrator. They may have handed him a tough hand.

I see from the report that they trumpet their birthing facilities, mental health facilities and cancer treatment center.

Thing is Penn Medicine already has those things in new facilities 5 minutes away with their Barshinger Cancer Center, their Womens and Babies Hospital, and their recently completed mental health hospital.

I checked and see 87 job openings, including many for nurses, currently on their web site.

They look like they will be bleeding cash waiting for all that growth they project.

On the other hand, it is a palace. Lancaster is lucky to have them, Penn, and UPMC investing so many $.

 

[Hardslider33]

They look like they will be bleeding cash waiting for all that growth they project.

Many of good things has dried up over the years waiting for something that never came.

 

[LionsAndBears]

It's the same here in Reading. The Reading Hospital (Tower Health) is the main hospital and it's packed every day. Penn State took over St Joseph's Hospital after they built a reall nice facility in the burbs and there's little traffic.

 

[LB99]

It's the same here in Reading. The Reading Hospital (Tower Health) is the main hospital and it's packed every day. Penn State took over St Joseph's Hospital after they built a reall nice facility in the burbs and there's little traffic.

Looks can be deceiving. Tower Health has been hemorrhaging money for the last few years.

Tower Health’s cash reserves — already extraordinarily low — fell by $49 million this summer

Tower lost twice as much money as it did in the same period last year.

www.inquirer.com

 

[91Joe95]

I unfortunately spend a great deal of time occupying or visiting hospitals.

Yesterday I found my way down to Lancaster to visit a buddy who is a patient in a beautiful new hospital Penn State built there a couple years ago.

It was 5:00 and my wife and I decided to get some snacks in the huge cafeteria. Nobody was there except one staff at the counter. No visitors, no staff having dinner, nobody.

The parking lot was 2/3 empty.

The hallways were sparsely populated.

A mile away Penn Medicine has a huge medical campus. Downtown they own the former Lancaster General Hospital.

As for Penn State I know Hershey is busy. I don’t know about the new Hampden Twp. Hospital?

Penn State had to spend a couple hundred million building, equipping and staffing the Lancaster facility.

Can anyone shed light on the hospital business Penn State is running?

Running up 10 figures in debt isn't easy, it takes a lot of work.

 

[LionsAndBears]

Looks can be deceiving. Tower Health has been hemorrhaging money for the last few years.

Tower Health’s cash reserves — already extraordinarily low — fell by $49 million this summer

Tower lost twice as much money as it did in the same period last year.

www.inquirer.com

That's because of their poor decisions in expansion. The Reading Hospital is not a part of their financial troubles. It's the thing that keeps them afloat.

 

[Psu00]

I unfortunately spend a great deal of time occupying or visiting hospitals.

Yesterday I found my way down to Lancaster to visit a buddy who is a patient in a beautiful new hospital Penn State built there a couple years ago.

It was 5:00 and my wife and I decided to get some snacks in the huge cafeteria. Nobody was there except one staff at the counter. No visitors, no staff having dinner, nobody.

The parking lot was 2/3 empty.

The hallways were sparsely populated.

A mile away Penn Medicine has a huge medical campus. Downtown they own the former Lancaster General Hospital.

As for Penn State I know Hershey is busy. I don’t know about the new Hampden Twp. Hospital?

Penn State had to spend a couple hundred million building, equipping and staffing the Lancaster facility.

Can anyone shed light on the hospital business Penn State is running?

From what I’ve heard, Hampden hospital had some issues early on. They originally opened with plans for a soft opening (ie limited patients) that reportedly got quickly overwhelmed on day 1 with staffing issues. The location was not very good. It’s only 5 miles from Holy Spirit Hospital (Penn St system too) and literally across the street from West Shore Hospital (UPMC affiliate).

There were much better places to open it but it was apparently done to stake a claim and counter UPMC’s West Shore hospital. IMO they should have opened it on the other side of Mechanicsburg or out toward the Carlisle area where there’s significant growth and a greater distance to get to the current hospitals.