After a massive consolidation of the region's health care industry, Community Health Systems has become the largest private employer in Northeast Pennsylvania.
With about 6,500 employees at eight area hospitals and nonhospital entities, Community Health Systems has even surpassed Tobyhanna Army Depot, which has about 5,400 workers.
"Whenever you have an employer that size, clearly that has a huge impact on the economy, not just for the people we employ, but those folks go out and buy houses and cars and gas," said Cornelio Catena, CEO of Wilkes-Barre General Hospital and Commonwealth Health, the umbrella group for Community Health Systems' area hospitals.
"It's a huge economic contributor to our area."
Geisinger Health System isn't far behind. With about 4,000 workers in Lackawanna, Luzerne, Wyoming and Monroe counties, Geisinger more than doubled its worker base since 2002.
William Moore, president and CEO of the Greater Wilkes-Barre Chamber of Business and Industry, said both health systems have a significant economic impact "that hits us every day."
Community Health Systems and Geisinger both provide jobs that "run the gamut from entry level to highly skilled qualified doctors, nurses and administrators with a wide range of salaries," Mr. Moore said.
"This leads to local purchases and major purchases such as housing, appliances and durable goods," Mr. Moore said. "There are good-paying jobs in the industry."
Satyajit Ghosh, Ph.D., a University of Scranton economist, said it is not surprising that health care organizations are becoming more important, "particularly given the fact that as a nation, we spend the most on health care in the world."
"Manufacturing used to provide a lot of jobs. Now, many of the large manufacturing employers are gone," Dr. Ghosh said. "During the recession, industries suffered when the economy wasn't doing well, but that's not the case with health care industries. They aren't linked with the recession. Ups and downs don't affect the health care industry at all. The health care industry has provided steady employment."
CHS increases holdings
Wyoming Valley Health Care System, which includes Wilkes-Barre General Hospital, was sold to for-profit Community Health Systems Inc. in 2009 for $271 million.
Franklin, Tenn.-based CHS has subsequently increased its local holdings to eight hospitals, snapping up the Regional Hospital of Scranton, Special Care Hospital in Nanticoke and Tyler Memorial Hospital in Tunkhannock last year for $150 million and Moses Taylor Hospital in Scranton and Mid-Valley Hospital in Blakely for $152 million in late December.
Hospitals under the Commonwealth Health umbrella also include Berwick Hospital Center and First Hospital in Kingston. Its non-hospital entities include Inter Mountain Medical Group, Physician Health Alliance and Community Counseling Services.
Commonwealth Health has continued to recruit physicians in various medical specialties, Mr. Catena said. From 2009 through this year, Commonwealth has recruited and plans to recruit at least 26 physicians at Wilkes-Barre General Hospital, he said.
A $53 million expanded emergency department and heart and vascular institute tower that recently opened at Wilkes-Barre General Hospital is expected to increase its volume of patients and create a need for more employees in the future, Mr. Catena said.
Community Health Systems affiliates own, operate or lease a total of 135 hospitals in 29 states, with an aggregate of approximately 20,000 licensed beds, according to its website.
Geisinger grows
The health system, based in Danville, has increased its presence locally. In addition to launching new services and attracting specialists to Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center in Plains Twp., Geisinger acquired Community Medical Center in Scranton earlier this year.
Geisinger Community Medical Center in Scranton now employs 1,603, a number that has grown because of higher patient volumes since the hospital joined Geisinger in February, said spokeswoman Wendy Wilson.
CEO Robert Steigmeyer anticipates an additional 80 support staff employees and 25 new physicians and physician assistants will be hired in the next year. In the next five years, they intend to hire 60 mid-level providers, which includes physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants and 160 new support staff.
"The growth really has been quite remarkable," Mr. Steigmeyer said. "The next five years will be radically different than the last five years for job creation and economic development."
Geisinger Northeast - covering Luzerne, Lackawanna, Wyoming and Monroe counties - has recruited 89 physicians and 200 registered nurses in the last three years and 49 physician assistants and certified nurse practitioners in the last two years, said Geisinger spokesman Matt Van Stone.
Within the next five years, Geisinger Northeast plans on recruiting 95 physicians, including 23 primary care physicians, Mr. Van Stone said.
In all, Geisinger Health System employs more than 14,000 people. The system serves more than 2.6 million residents throughout 44 counties in northeastern and central Pennsylvania.
Hospitals top employers statewide
Statewide, hospitals are among the top employers in 55 of Pennsylvania's 67 counties, according to a recent study by the Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania.
"Hospitals do continue to play a very important role as economic contributors in their communities," said Julie Kissinger, spokeswoman for the Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania.
"Hospitals are particularly important in rural communities where you may have fewer large job providers," she said. "Hospitals and health systems make a total direct and indirect contribution of nearly $100 billion on the state's economy and that is a result of both direct and indirect economic spin-offs in construction, food services and other businesses that work with hospitals."
According to the state Department of Labor and Industry, health care industries in Luzerne County, including hospitals, ambulatory health care services and nursing and residential care facilities, employed 19,513 people in 2011 who earned an average wage of $43,174. In Lackawanna County, 16,674 people worked in the health care industry in 2011 and the average wage was $42,627. Statewide, the health care industry employed 786,029 in 2011 and the average wage was $47,898.
According to the Center for Workforce Information and Analysis, Wilkes-Barre General Hospital was the third top employer and Geisinger was the fifth largest in Luzerne County in the most recent data from the fourth quarter of 2011. Wilkes-Barre General Hospital employs 1,950 people. Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center in Plains Twp. and Geisinger South Wilkes-Barre employ a combined total of 1,770 people.
The top two employers in Luzerne County in the fourth quarter of 2011 were the federal and state governments. Luzerne County government was ranked number four.
In Lackawanna County, Geisinger Community Medical Center was ranked the fourth top employer and Moses Taylor Hospital was ranked fifth in the fourth quarter of 2011. Geisinger Community Medical Center in Scranton now employs 1,603; Moses Taylor employs 1,189. The top employers in Lackawanna County were the state government, Allied Services Foundation and Scranton School District.
Nationwide, industries and occupations related to health care, personal care and social assistance, are projected to have the fastest job growth between 2010 and 2020, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. While overall employment in manufacturing is projected to decline by 1 percent, the health care and social assistance industry is projected to create about 28 percent of all new jobs created in the U.S. economy.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court recently upheld the Affordable Care Act, all Americans will need to have health insurance by 2014 and Dr. Ghosh said that will mean more job growth in the health care industry.
"The health care reform essentially will bring in more uninsured individuals. Insurance companies and health care organizations will essentially have more customers to deal with," Dr. Ghosh said. "Health care industries have always been important given the lack of job growth coming from other companies and other industries. Their relative importance has grown in the region and for years to come, we will see that trend continue."
Economic development
At Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center in Plains Twp., a $9.5 million project to expand the critical care building is under way. The 24-bed unit expansion will add about 20,000 square feet of space. The project likely will be completed in February, said John Buckley, chief administrative officer of Geisinger Northeast. Plans also are underway to build a medical office building on Geisinger's Plains Twp. campus, he said.
"As we expand facilities, we are looking to recruit additional doctors," he said. "As we have more doctors and more space, we need more staff to go with that."
The $53 million emergency department and heart and vascular institute tower, which recently opened at Wilkes-Barre General Hospital, is part of $96 million in investments at Wilkes-Barre General Hospital since Community Health Systems bought the nonprofit Wyoming Valley Health Care System in May 2009, Mr. Catena said. The investment is part of Community Health Systems' commitment to spend a total of $135 million over seven years.
Other major capital improvements at Wilkes-Barre General Hospital have included a $5 million new inpatient rehab unit; a robotic surgery program costing $5 million and a more advanced robotic surgical system costing $1.8 million; a $2 million pharmacy system; $3.6 million in investments in imaging services and radiation oncology, $5 million in information systems and $2 million in cardiac catheterization laboratories.
Additionally, Community Health Systems recently opened a new $4.5 million medical office and outpatient facility in Wright Twp. and is looking at opening a similar facility in Nanticoke, Mr. Catena said.
Geisinger has also committed to an $80 million facility expansion of GCMC, $25.7 million to construct a new physician office building in Scranton and a $20 million project underway to upgrade the hospital's information technology system.
The $80 million expansion, scheduled to begin next year, will include 14 new operating rooms and new critical care facilities. The $25.7 million physician office building will be located at the Mount Pleasant Corporate Center near Scranton High School, replacing Geisinger's current community practice facility at Lake Scranton.
"These are two very substantial projects which will employ a lot of different people, including architects, engineers, contractors and subcontractors," Mr. Steigmeyer said. "It will have the basic multiplier effect. When we create more jobs here, which are well-paying jobs, people will spend money in the community and we will retain people here who don't go to other markets."
Contact the writer: dallabaugh@citizensvoice.com