HEATHER STAUFFER | Staff WriterA second unit at UPMC Pinnacle Lancaster has closed and all hospital operations are on track to stop by March, according to a hospital spokeswoman.
Danielle Gilmore confirmed in an email Thursday that all behavioral health patients have been discharged and no more are being accepted.
The rehabilitation unit closed in December, less than two weeks after the system announced plans to shut down the 135-year-old hospital in Lancaster city.
She did not directly answer a question about when other units would close, but wrote that the system “will keep the community informed of changes affecting patients when there are new updates to share.”
Joint efforts
Several things that happen in the hospital building involve other organizations.
One is Mass at the hospital’s chapel. The Catholic Diocese of Harrisburg’s web site lists Rev. Michael Culkin as chaplain there, but so far all the diocese has said to inquiries about the chapel’s future is that it’s evaluating options.
Gilmore wrote that the system is working with the diocese and potential buyers of the building — which it has not named — and will keep the community informed.
The hospital also works with Milersville University on a respiratory therapy program that accepts about 15 students per class. That’s according to the university, which said it intends to continue the program.
Gilmore wrote that the program will continue at UPMC Pinnacle Lititz.
Fate of employees
A WARN notice filed with the state department of labor and industry earlier this month listed the same number of Lancaster employees that UPMC Pinnacle previously told LNP it had: 505.
WARN notices — required under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act — sometimes include reasons for closure, but this one did not. UPMC Pinnacle also did not indicate how many of those employees were expected to be able to transfer to Lititz or other UPMC facilities.
The most recent state records are from 2017 and show a total of 680 workers at the Lancaster hospital at that time — 97 of them contracted and the rest on payroll.
The system has said some employees will be able to transfer to Lititz, where it’s moving some services and expanding others. But it has not said how many it expects to do so.
Other news
UPMC Pinnacle also announced this month that it’s planning to add 58 beds to the 102-bed West Shore Hospital in Cumberland County it says has consistently operated at 90 percent capacity since opening in 2014.
It’s also planning to expand services at the cancer center on the same campus beyond the gynecological and breast cancers that were previously its focus.
About a mile away from that campus, Penn State Health — best known for Hershey Medical Center — is planning to build a new 108-bed hospital called Penn State Health Hampden Medical Center. County commissioners are expected to vote on the proposal in February or March.
