Work is underway on a project that will add 36 private medical-surgical beds to its inpatient capacity at Geisinger South Wilkes-Barre.
The $8.2 million project to renovate space on the hospital's fourth floor is expected to be completed by early fall, officials said.
GEISINGER
SOUTH WILKES-BARRE
EXPANSION
● The hospital currently has 68 inpatient beds.
● The fourth floor project will add 36 beds, taking it to 104.
● The new beds will all be private.
● Work is expected to be complete in early fall 2026.
● The fourth floor of the hospital has not been used for inpatient care since 2009.
Combined with recent and upcoming improvements, it will allow the hospital to treat more people in the neighborhood with fewer transfers to other hospitals.
"It's very important for that local community, because they can trust the care that that is being provided to them, and they don't have to then be transferred on to the larger tertiary care facilities if they can be appropriately managed locally," said Dr. Corey Goldberg, who is associate chief medical officer for the hospital as well as medical director for Geisinger's Northeast region emergency departments.
“Geisinger South Wilkes-Barre’s capability may be greater than many in our community know,” Goldberg said.
The Church Street hospital is a campus of Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center in Plains Township, but its facilities include an emergency room, a ConvenientCare+ and pediatric urgent care, as well as a fully functioning operating room that provides orthopedic and other services.
Additional upgrades completed or planned
The inpatient bed project comes on the heels of several other upgrades completed or planned at the hospital on Church Street:
● A September 2025 emergency room expansion at Geisinger South Wilkes-Barre nearly doubled the department’s capacity.
"Having a fully functioning emergency department — just like any emergency department in the country — in a hospital that is going to have increased capacity, it's very important," Goldberg said.
● In February, the hospital began providing inpatient service for routine electroencephalograms (EEGs), a non-invasive diagnostic test to detect epilepsy, sleep disorders and brain injuries.
"It prevents having to move people who are inpatient and recovering up to Wyoming Valley and back to have that service done," Goldberg said.
● The hospital opened a discharge lounge in January. "It offers patients who meet certain health criteria a comfortable setting to wait for transportation home, as well as any necessary medications," officials said.
● Geisinger South Wilkes-Barre started offering dialysis for inpatients in April.
● A Geisinger Pharmacy is expected to open at Geisinger South Wilkes-Barre by the end of the year. It will serve discharged patients and community members, as well as support the hospital’s Meds to Beds program, "which fills prescriptions and delivers them directly to inpatient hospital rooms to make sure patients are discharged with the right medications at the right time," officials said.
Big projects underway at Wyoming Valley, Danville
The Danville-based nonprofit health system serves 1.2 million people across central and Northeast Pennsylvania at 163 care sites, including 10 hospital campuses.
The work at South Wilkes-Barre comes as Geisinger has other high-profile construction projects underway at other campuses.
Officials broke ground in June 2024 on a nearly $900 million expansion that will nearly double the size of the Geisinger Wyoming Valley campus.
The following month, officials announced an $880 million expansion plan at Geisinger Medical Center in Danville. They broke ground in May 2025.
“We continue to see a growing need for acute care services across our region,” said Dan Landesberg, associate vice president of clinical operations in Geisinger’s northeast region.
“We’re focused on providing the best possible care for our patients and community, and using Geisinger South Wilkes-Barre to its full potential as a community hospital is necessary to deliver that care,” Landesberg said.
Private rooms increasingly preferred
The expansions at Wyoming Valley and Danville will see increasing use of all-private patient rooms, officials have said, noting that they are preferred by patients and families.
Likewise, at South Wilkes-Barre.
"Patients expect a peaceful recovery in the hospital, right? And so if you can imagine sharing a room with someone ... you're not going to get a restful night. There's constant interruption," Goldberg said.
"So having these private beds allows patients to recover in a restful atmosphere."
