Pike is Pennsylvania’s only county without its own hospital or immediate care center. That’s about to change within the next two months.
Northwell Health, a New York-based nonprofit, plans to open a primary and express care center in Dingmans Ferry by early January and a second in Hawley in summer 2026. Plans for a micro-hospital are in the works and officials said Thursday they hope to build near I-84 in the Milford-Matamoros corridor area.
ABOUT THE NEW CARE CENTER
WHAT: Northwell Health plans to open a primary and express care center in Dingmans Ferry
WHEN: Early January, 2026
WHERE: Delaware Plaza on Route 739 adjacent to the Weis Market
Northwell and the Pike County Commissioners held Thursday’s meeting at the county’s training center in Lords Valley to allow residents and community service providers to ask questions about the project.
The commissioners announced in November 2022 that that Northwell Health had verbally committed to open urgent care locations in the County.
Commissioner Ronald Schmalzle — who in February 2024 hinted that an announcement wasn't far off — congratulated Northwell on Thursday for its work and told the roughly 75 attendees the health system is taking the initiative to invest in rural health.
“If [investing in healthcare in Pike County] was profitable, it would be here already. It is a heavy lift to build something in Pike County, because we started with almost no people. When I grew up, there were 18,000 people living here, and now there's about 65,000 people. But that triples during the vacation season,” Schmalzle said.
Tourism is the number one industry in Pike County, but residents and visitors often have to travel into New Jersey or New York for immediate medical care.
Brahim Ardolic, Northwell’s executive vice president and president of its metro market, said Pike is in a “unique situation” as it must start fresh to establish a medical program in the area. He said Northwell is “one of the few companies that really invests” in keeping tertiary and advanced care as close to people as possible.
“I came from a place that was turned from a community hospital to a full service tertiary care hospital in Staten Island [New York] that does everything, including heart surgery … No other health system would have done that … If I have to send you somewhere just to get your procedure done … I'm sending you just for [one] thing, and not for your specialist visit every three months, for the rest of your life,” Ardolic said.
If Northwell Health achieves its goal, Ardolic said residents will not have to constantly travel out of state or to neighboring counties for medical care. But he asked the community, including state Sen. Lisa Baker (R-Luzerne) and state Rep. Jeffrey Olsommer (R-Pike), to understand that the plan will take time to execute. Northwell will only be able to bring in new medical specialists if they can demonstrate that there is a need that meets or exceeds the cost to relocate someone.
“It takes time and capacity to justify me sending, for instance, a vascular surgeon here. It’s a big deal. If I can't fill up a session for a vascular surgeon, I'm not properly utilizing a resource,” Ardolic said. “So, I have to figure out with the team what that [financially viable plan] actually looks like, and it's going to be a process. But it's a process that we're going to commit to together. And the goal really is to give you as many of those specialists I can in Pike County.”
Pike County residents and officials want healthcare that meets their needs
Residents and community service providers throughout the county asked Northwell representatives for a timeline of how it will bring services to Pike.
Northwell’s Dingmans Ferry location will start to take appointments in January and has hired its first provider, Dr. Michael Mandarano, an internist and pediatrician who serves newborns through the elderly. The six-staffer facility will be able to provide glucose and other blood tests and x-ray imaging.
Ardolic and Northwell staff said they are working to make sure their Pennsylvania-based facilities take all insurances, including Geisinger and Highmark.
Pike County Commissioner Christa Caceres asked for more information on what specialists Northwell plans to bring into the county.
“There are a lot of women in the room,” Caceres said while looking around the crowd. “And so an obvious question is, gynecology is something that I think many of us would agree would be critical here … Women are wanting to know … when are we going to get a specialist for us?”
Ardolic said gynecology is one of the areas Northwell identified as needing financial investment.
Baker asked for an explanation on how micro-hospitals and community hospitals differ and how they compare to a traditional hospital.
Ardolic said micro-hospitals usually have the same number of inpatient and ER beds, somewhere between eight to 12 beds. Some micro-hospitals have MRIs, while all have full-service radiology, including CT scans. Community hospitals tend to be slightly larger and older than micro-hospitals.
“I don't know why it turned out this way, but ‘micro-hospital’ tends to be a phrase that you use for these beautiful looking, brand-new things that have been plunked into the ground. And community hospitals … [usually] used to be a much bigger hospital that has been allowed to shrink down to a smaller size and is [in] a viable section of that community,” Ardolic said.
Northwell Health will provide additional services for Pike County veterans
Northwell officials also highlighted plans to bring medical services for veterans to the area.
Juan Serrano, Northwell’s vice president of military liaison services, said he values the support Pike County gives its veterans and helps his organization connect veterans to resources. He is a veteran himself who served during Operation Iraqi Freedom and was honorably discharged from the U.S. Marine Corps after he sustained a back injury.
“I also realized that going to the doctor in the military could potentially be viewed as a sign of weakness, and oftentimes you suffer in silence,” Serrano said to the crowd. “So, it was important for us to create an opportunity for veterans to connect to care coordination, but also file [insurance, veteran services] claims so they can get the services that they need.
“[Caring for veterans is about] not just compensation, but the idea of continuity of care, making sure that they get well. Because what's [financial] compensation without your health,” he said.
Serrano said Northwell provides veterans with specific time slots to see physicians to better fit their schedules and needs. It also links veterans with social workers that can help them connect to other social services like mental health support and job opportunities that put the skills veterans learn in the military to work in civilian jobs.
Ardolic said Northwell is putting in the time to research what Pike’s veterans need, as about 10% of residents are veterans and he estimates that 25% of the community are veterans or live in a household with a veteran.
On a personal note, Serrano said Northwell also provides veteran services to family members of veterans.
“I believe that when I came home, my family took the brunt of my frustration,” Serrano said. “So, it's important that you know that every program … will be made available to everyone who orbits around the service member — the parents, the family, the children, the partners — is equally important.”
