Geisinger Community Medical Center (GCMC) has several projects in motion to address critical and growing health care needs for the Scranton, Lackawanna County and larger northeastern Pennsylvania community.

Renovation is underway to add 19 new postpartum beds and more pre- and post-operative care to GCMC’s labor and delivery capacity. The project is expected to reach a 12-bed milestone in December and be completed in April 2026.

To provide more onsite care for newborns, GCMC has upgraded its nursery from a well-baby nursery to a continuing care nursery capable of caring for babies who may need help breathing or regulating their temperature but do not need the higher acuity care of a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).

Geisinger leadership is targeting next year to begin work on a NICU, which, when complete, will provide care for babies with more complicated conditions and need for critical care right in Scranton.

GCMC is also addressing an increasing community need for more emergency care by adding 24 emergency medicine treatment areas to its first floor, an update made possible by the migration of a variety of outpatient specialty services from the medical center to Geisinger’s 3 W. Olive Street facility where they have more room to grow.

The multi-faceted plan for improvement within the hospital’s current footprint includes installing a second MRI machine for diagnostic imaging and building an additional suite for endoscopic procedures. These enhancements to care capacity will be supported by the growth of Geisinger’s patient transport services in Lackawanna County.

These efforts follow the opening or reactivation of 41 inpatient beds earlier this year, 22 of which were enabled by moving behavioral health services to Geisinger Behavioral Health Center Northeast when it opened in August 2023.

These most recent and ongoing renovations represent a nearly $50 million investment in Scranton.

“We are laser-focused on providing as much safe, quality acute care as possible within the bounds of Geisinger Community Medical Center,” said Navneet Dang, M.D., M.B.A., chief medical officer at GCMC. “As more residents of Lackawanna County and surrounding communities come to us for care, we need all these resources to meet their needs. But to deliver the best care possible, we still need to do much more.”

Scranton Mayor Paige Cognetti recently appealed to City Council to approve new zoning designations near GCMC to facilitate Geisinger’s continued commitment to addressing the critical and growing health care needs of the Scranton community.

“With these projects, we’ve grown services as much as humanly possible inside the walls of our current hospital, but the community needs more,” said Nick Coleman, associate vice president of clinical operations in Geisinger’s northeast region. “Significant additional capacity at GCMC is needed, long overdue, and what northeastern Pennsylvania deserves. Amidst the uncertain future of hospital services elsewhere in Scranton, we are very grateful for Mayor Cognetti’s forward-thinking and vision. We need equal support from City Council and the people of Scranton to ensure we have a health care community that can care for everyone who lives here with competence, expertise and compassion for years to come.”