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Local impact: Wyoming County healthcare desert turns community health hub after hospital closure

The Ruark family bought the old Tyler Memorial Hospital to turn it into the Wyoming County Healthcare Center, Inc. Bill (middle) and his children Lindsay (left) and Ryan (right) were at the open house on Oct. 3 to showcase the family effort behind the new healthcare center.
Allison Schultz
The Ruark family bought the old Tyler Memorial Hospital to turn it into the Wyoming County Healthcare Center, Inc. Bill (middle) and his children Lindsay (left) and Ryan (right) were at the open house on Oct. 3 to showcase the family effort behind the new healthcare center.

Howard Bartron stood among community leaders and healthcare providers excited to see what services the newly minted Wyoming County Healthcare Center, Inc. will provide.

The 72-year old was born in a rural hospital and went to Tyler Memorial Hospital, just a few miles away from where he lives, for all his healthcare needs.

After the closure of Tyler Memorial in 2022, he had no option but to travel up to 30 miles to receive basic care. He had a scare earlier this year in which commuting to get care posed a serious threat to his life.

“I just had an episode this spring where I had to go to the hospital 30 miles away, when I could have been right here,” Bartron said.

Right now, the center offers basic healthcare services like X-rays and check-ups. There are no emergency services yet.

In 2011, Tennessee-based company Community Health Systems operating locally as Commonwealth Health bought several local hospitals, including Tunkhannock’s Tyler Memorial.

After 10 years of operation under Commonwealth Health, inpatient and surgical care ended in 2021, with emergency services coming to a halt in 2022.

Commonwealth Health said in a statement in 2021, "Despite investments in the Tyler Memorial Hospital facility, community usage has steadily declined over the past four years – even at the height of the pandemic" about the decision to end inpatient services.

Wyoming County Healthcare Center, Inc.’s website says, “The closure of Tyler Memorial Hospital due to the diminished quality of care provided by Commonwealth Health resulted in a significant gap in healthcare services for Wyoming County and its surrounding areas.”

Wyoming County became a medical desert. The closest hospitals were in Wilkes-Barre or Scranton, both more than 20 miles and 30 minutes away.

Tyler Memorial’s closure impacted many local patients like Bartron, who had no emergency facility or general healthcare options close to home.

When the Tunkhannock hospital closed, community leaders stepped up to turn the closed hospital into a community health hub. A local family partnered with 18 organizations to offer residents accessible healthcare in the wake of the closure.

Businessman Bill Ruark and his family bought the old hospital and spearheaded the community effort to localize healthcare. His children, Lindsay Ruark Shalata and Ryan Ruark, have worked closely with him to make their father’s vision a reality. Shalata serves as the center’s executive director, while Ryan is a board member.

The family welcomed the community for an information fair and open house on Oct. 3. They offered tours of the facility, hosted a ribbon cutting ceremony with the Chamber of Commerce and encouraged locals to explore the new healthcare hub.

For Bill, buying the hospital was a no-brainer. He wanted to help the community recover after being negatively impacted by corporatized healthcare, putting the responsibility for care back into the hands of locals.

“We’ve all been raised here,” he said. “[I] raised my kids here. My kids were born in this hospital. Years ago, Tyler was a great hospital, and then Commonwealth came in, and I think it was good for a while, then it went bad, and they left.”

The community’s collaboration was overwhelming for the family.

“It actually was overwhelming today for me because I know a lot of the players in the community, and they believe in what we're doing as a family,” Bill said.

Shalata sees the center as proof of the community coming together to meet people’s needs, even if the odds are stacked against them.

“It's a testament to what can be done in these communities that are struggling, in these rural communities,” she said.

The Wright Center is one of 18 partners operating within the new center. President and CEO Dr. Linda Thomas-Hemak saw the closure as part of an unfortunate trend of healthcare not centering around community needs.

Representatives from The Wright Center, one of many partners at the center, celebrated at the ribbon cutting ceremony for Wyoming County Healthcare Center. (From left to right) Dr. Linda Thomas-Hemak, president and CEO of The Wright Centers for Community Health and Graduate Medical Education; Dr. Henry C. Novroski, The Wright Center for Community Health's Tunkhannock primary care center; Dr. Jignesh Y. Sheth, senior vice president and chief medical and information officer of The Wright Centers for Community Health and Graduate Medical Education; and Physician Assistant Mallory Racoski, The Wright Center for Community Health's Tunkhannock primary care center.
The Wright Center for Community Health
Representatives from The Wright Center, one of many partners at the center, celebrated at the ribbon cutting ceremony for Wyoming County Healthcare Center. (From left to right) Dr. Linda Thomas-Hemak, president and CEO of The Wright Centers for Community Health and Graduate Medical Education; Dr. Henry C. Novroski, The Wright Center for Community Health's Tunkhannock primary care center; Dr. Jignesh Y. Sheth, senior vice president and chief medical and information officer of The Wright Centers for Community Health and Graduate Medical Education; and Physician Assistant Mallory Racoski, The Wright Center for Community Health's Tunkhannock primary care center.

“The closure was just very symbolic of how detached healthcare was getting from community based platforms,” she said.

She’s encouraged by the collaboration from so many different organizations to make the healthcare hub a reality.

“People want a different future,” she said. “They want to figure out who's doing what, and let's all work together in a collective action where we can celebrate the shared metrics of success that are victories for the community.”

The Wright Center’s senior vice president and chief medical and information officer Dr. Jignesh Sheth took on the responsibility of setting up and staffing the organization’s clinic within the healthcare center.

He too found hope in the community collaboration and the efforts of the Ruark family.

“The state of rural healthcare is dependent on the community,” he said. “The community has to take charge, and that's what the Ruark family did. Rural healthcare is going to survive and it's in the hands of people that need the service.”

Sheth thinks the key to success when it comes to healthcare is understanding the community. And who better to understand, he argues, than people born and raised within it.

“The plan has to come from within the community, not from outside,” he said “That’s what's going to bring success. Every community is different, every community has different needs, and unless someone is part of that, they are not able to devise a plan to help the people.”

While the family is thrilled with the center’s opening and the services they are able to provide, they still want to bring more services into the facility. They see the opening as just the beginning of bridging the coverage gap left by Tyler Memorial’s closure.

Long-term, they hope to bring back emergency services and in-house surgeries, with hopes of bringing beds to the facility for patient stays.

For Shalata, the hope for patients is that they will, “be able to get more services under one roof, so patients don't have to travel so far and are able to stay close for quality care.”