Expansion could increase Hershey Medical Center capacity by up to 15 percent

It would add three stories to its five-story children’s hospital, and expand and move women’s services and the neonatal intensive care unit there from the adult hospital.

“We’re running about as full as we can run,” Hillemeier said.

Official counts taken at midnight and averaged across a year put its occupancy rate at 87.5 percent, but he said during the day it’s often as high as 105 percent or 110 percent.

“That means people are waiting to get into rooms,” he said, calling it “not the ideal situation.”

Hershey had wanted to solve the problem by joining forces with nearby PinnacleHealth System and transferring less-sick patients there, but regulatory objections killed that merger last year.

Now, Hershey is considering a build-and-shuffle approach that would keep the patients on its sprawling campus located not far outside Lancaster County.

Hershey also considered constructing a “bed tower,” Hillemeier said, but that would take longer, so for now it’s planning to add on to the children’s hospital, move the departments, and see how things look in a couple of years.

A smaller project to add a 12-bed observation unit and expand the emergency department that handled 75,000 visits last year is also in the works.

Hershey spokesman Scott Gilbert said in an email Thursday that cost estimates on the projects are not yet available, as Hershey’s boards have said yes to going forward with the design phase, but not given final approval.

Father back in the consideration process, Hillemeier said, is a four-story Innovations Pavilion with research labs and teaching space for the medical school.

New tactic

In addition to making sure there’s enough physical space for patients on the campus, Hillemeier said, in the last decade the academic medical center has become more focused on building a network of doctors across the communities it serves.

Last week’s announcement that Physicians’ Alliance Ltd. will become part of Hershey is part of that initiative. PAL, as the alliance is known, is the largest independent doctor’s group in Lancaster County, with about 120 physicians.

Hillemeier said Hershey has also expanded services and opened new offices in Cumberland and Berks counties recently.

He wouldn’t comment on PinnacleHealth’s announcement last month that it plans to affiliate with western Pennsylvania powerhouse University of Pittsburgh Medical Center and buy five hospitals in the region, including Lancaster Regional Medical Center, and Heart of Lancaster Regional Medical Center.

But he did say that consolidation in the region influenced Hershey’s strategy.

And asked if Hershey is pursuing any other mergers or acquisitions, he said only, “We’re having talks with many different parties all the time.”