Geisinger is planning an $880 million expansion of Geisinger Medical Center in Danville that would include an 11-story tower, an expanded emergency department, and the transition to 100% private patient rooms.
In many ways it will be a mirror image of the system's nearly $900 million expansion project at Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center in Plains Township, Luzerne County, near Wilkes-Barre, which ceremonially started last month.
The Danville project, which is expected to start in 2025, would be the first expansion of the Danville campus since its Hospital for Advanced Medicine tower opened in 2010.
The Luzerne County project, meanwhile, will nearly double the GWV campus’ size by the end of 2028, including an 11-story tower, 100% private rooms, as well as added emergency, intensive care, trauma, and mental health beds.
Megan Brosious, chief administrative officer for Geisinger’s central region, said the investments in Danville and Plains Township are designed to enhance care and respond to shifting demographics — primarily the rising number of senior citizens.
"The 65 and older population, which typically requires more health resources and specialized care, is expected to grow over the next decade," Brosious said.
"It's not just a Danville or Wilkes-Barre problem in isolation. Both of our facilities have been very full, very high capacity. And so we are very fortunate to be able to be addressing these concerns for both regions," she said.
Having similar projects underway at the same time will allow Geisinger to benefit from common standards and efficiencies, Brosious added.
"While there are different people in charge of each project, we get to share all that learning, and even have our construction management companies collaborating and working with each other, because it's what's best for our patients and our system," Brosious said. "That has been a very unique situation that I think is going to pay dividends for us."
Danville expansion in focus
Key elements of the Danville project include:
The new ER will double the square footage of the current space and increase it from 45 beds to 60 beds.
"We come to work, and we take amazing care of patients. But they don't always have what we would expect or hope to be the best experience. So you may come in and have a long wait in our emergency department. Because the hospital is over capacity, and it causes delays in throughput," Brosious said.
Updated and expanded intensive care units and operating suites around the ER to allow collaboration between teams as they care for the sickest and most severely injured patients.
“Our patients will have a modern care environment where they can continue receiving expert care right here in Danville, as they’ve come to expect from us over the past century. And our teams will have the space they need to provide that care,” Brosious said.
All private rooms facility so each patient will have privacy to recover and be with their loved ones.
"I think the last thing any of us wants when we're not feeling well, is to have to cohabitate with a stranger," Brosious said.
- More space for teams to work collaboratively on a patient’s care plan.
A proposed multi-level parking garage near the front of the hospital. The garage will connect to the hospital with an enclosed sky bridge.
Currently, Brosious said, "you might have to walk a really long distance from where you, you know, park your car to where you need to go to the campus, because we have the right amount of parking, but it's not in the right places, it's not convenient."
Phased construction
Work on the campus has begun with a roadway project in front of the hospital that will improve traffic flow, officials said.
The Danville expansion project is expected to begin in 2025, starting with the planned demolition of Dickey Clinic to make room for the tower. Tower construction will occur in phases, with expected completion in 2028.
“Our community has depended on Geisinger for world-class health care for more than a century,” Terry Gilliland, M.D., president and CEO of Geisinger, said. “We’re continuing that legacy today as we announce the largest expansion project in the nearly 110-year history of Geisinger Medical Center. This project will truly transform care. It’s proof of our commitment to making better health easier for our communities today and into the future.”
