Without a single hospital or urgent care center in Pike County, residents have to travel to New York or New Jersey to receive medical care.
The county commissioners' office announced Thursday that the Pike Medical Foundation received $500,000 from the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services (DHS) towards medical equipment for a new hospital.
Commissioner Matthew Osterberg said Pike is the only county in Pennsylvania that has never had a hospital.
He said Pike is working with Northwell Health, a New York-based nonprofit, and Lehigh Valley Health Network to open a micro-hospital and two primary care facilities in the area.
Northwell Health said the first of its primary care facilities will open later this year.
Lehigh Valley did not immediately respond for comment.
What is a micro-hospital and what will it do for Pike County?
Micro-hospitals, or neighborhood hospitals, are small hospitals that provide 24/7 emergency care with limited inpatient beds. They fill coverage gaps in rural areas or places that cannot otherwise support full-scale hospitals.
Osterberg said Pike’s micro-hospital will be modeled after Lehigh Valley’s hospital in Macungie, which has 11 emergency room beds and 10 inpatient beds. The facility also offers ambulatory diagnostics and imaging services like X-rays, ultrasound, CT and MRI scans.
He said he hopes the facility will alleviate pressure from the county’s EMS services.
“When you're picked up by an ambulance some place in the center part of this county, many times that ambulance is out of service for two to three hours … because of the distance … required to get to a hospital,” said Osterberg.
Osterberg said Pike’s top industry is tourism. While its permanent population is around 60,000 to 63,000, that number can easily be “doubled if not tripled” in the summer months. People visit outdoor resorts and places like Lake Wallenpaupack. Without nearby medical facilities, visitors and residents alike could face serious injuries without nearby medical services.
Pike also has one of the oldest populations in Pennsylvania. The Center for Rural Pennsylvania found that it has more residents 65 years old and older than it has residents under 20 years old, using 2020 census data.
Osterberg said the county lacks doctors to keep up with the county’s aging population.
“For the most part, there's some doctors here, but a limited amount … It’s important with [the number] of senior citizens we have here that we've tried to bring medical services as close as we can to our residents so that they don't have to travel long distance,” Osterberg said.
Osterberg: Pike County Hospital is ‘well overdue’
Pike County officials report the micro-hospital will cost approximately $30 million, with $3.5 million allocated to equipment and furnishings.
Osterberg said the county is working to prove to Northwell and Lehigh Valley that opening medical centers in Pike County is financially “viable.”
“It's a big investment to do, but it's well overdue here in Pike County, and we're going to make sure that this becomes reality,” said Osterberg.
He said Pike received Thursday’s $500,000 grant with Senator Lisa Baker and Representative Jeff Olsommer’s assistance.
The county also allocated $2 million from its $11 million in American Rescue Plan Act funding to create the Pike Medical Foundation Fund in 2023, to financially back the county’s medical services. The Greater Pike Community Foundation oversees the fund, Osterberg said.
Municipalities and counties across Pennsylvania and nationwide received American Rescue Plan Act funds to support local economies after the pandemic.
Two primary care facilities coming to Pike and Wayne counties
David Seligman, Northwell’s senior vice president and deputy market president, said the organization plans to open two primary care facilities in Pennsylvania that will accept both scheduled and walk-in care.
In an email, he said Northwell is working on a facility in Dingmans Ferry in Delaware Twp. and one in Hawley, near the Wayne/Pike county line by Lake Wallenpaupack.
Northwell plans to open the Dingmans Ferry location by the end of the year and the Hawley location in Spring 2026, Seligman said.
The county is working to ensure that both locations take local residents’ insurance, Osterberg said.
“We want to be sure … they are accepting the most popular insurances in Pike County,” Osterberg said.
He said he could not provide a timeline for the hospital to open. The county’s next step is to find a location to build it and additional funding.
"It's a little difficult in this county, because we lack areas where there's really a lot of infrastructure … [like] water, sewer, gas,” he said.
“But that is being pursued, … [and] we are very confident that this is going to happen … we feel very optimistic, but we need to continue to identify funding to help them (Northwell and Lehigh Valley) make this a viable and successful endeavor in our county,” said Osterberg.
