RIDGWAY — Five months after losing its maternity unit, rural Elk County is trying to fill the gap by giving the north-central Pennsylvania community a say over access to local health services.
The three-member county board of commissioners unanimously acted to form — but not fund — an authority to explore opportunities to improve access and bolster health care options in the area. The idea comes after months of grassroots efforts to address the hole created when Penn Highlands Healthcare, a nonprofit with nine hospitals statewide, shuttered labor and delivery services at its St. Marys location.
“This is a moment for us to be a little bit more in control of our destiny,” Zack Pontious, a Ridgway native, told Spotlight PA.
Community members, who have watched services trickle out of the area for years, said they were confused, frustrated, and worried by the maternity unit closure — a decision made without public input and that Penn Highlands has no plans to reverse.
Now, Penn Highlands refers pregnant patients in Elk County to its DuBois hospital, which has 24-hour labor coverage and a 16-bed neonatal intensive care unit. But people in Elk County must drive more than 30 minutes to get to Clearfield County for birth services.
Penn Highlands said money wasn’t a factor in the decision to shutter labor and delivery services in Elk County. However, financial challenges, aging patients, and staffing shortages make it hard to sustain rural hospitals. The health system has lost millions of dollars on operations, according to its financial records. In August, a credit rating agency downgraded Penn Highlands, citing a $16 million operating loss and predicted financial challenges.
The closure created a six-county region where communities don’t have a hospital or another facility that delivers babies — sparking concerns among residents that people and industries won’t want to move to an area without a maternity unit, which could hurt the local economy.
To address this, the Elk County Healthcare Coalition — a group of more than 80 residents and business owners — lobbied the county commissioners to create an authority to find solutions.
During a 90-minute October public hearing on the proposed authority, coalition members and Penn Highlands representatives made their case for and against it.
Community members said the authority would bolster local health services by partnering with existing providers — including Penn Highlands — and researching alternative options for care.
Meanwhile, Penn Highlands officials detailed how financial challenges and staffing issues have prompted them to shift operations. System administrators also expressed concern that the body would duplicate services and create more competition for grants among health care-related organizations. They questioned whether the authority would address the community’s needs.
“Gone is the model of every community hospital offering a complete continuum of services,” Penn Highlands Elk President Julianne Peer said during the forum. Corinne Laboon, a Penn Highlands spokesperson, told Spotlight PA in an email that the authority “would cause confusion in the community.”
Members of the coalition argued that the body would only enhance efforts to keep services in the area and bring additional options to the community.
“It’s independent and additive. That’s really the crux of it,” Pontious, a coalition member, told Spotlight PA. “Creating the authority comes at no cost. There are alternative methods of receiving and acquiring methods of receiving and acquiring dollars that have nothing to do with taxpayers.”
The authority will consist of seven board members who consider ways to partner with other organizations and seek grants to invest in health care services locally without having to rely entirely on Penn Highlands. Outside of appointing individuals to serve on the authority, Elk County officials have no other obligation to its work.
Elk County “doesn’t have to be tied to a business model” that doesn’t serve the community, Pontious said.
State officials have also met with Penn Highlands over the past 10 months, including members of Gov. Josh Shapiro’s administration and state Rep. Mike Armanini (R., Clearfield), who represents parts of Elk County.
The governor’s office told Spotlight PA that access to affordable and quality health care locally is a priority for Shapiro. Senior members of the Democrat’s administration previously attended a listening session in St. Marys after the maternity unit closed and met privately with stakeholders.
The governor’s office cited the rural hospital roundtable, which brought together policymakers and health care professionals to discuss challenges within the industry, as an example of its ongoing work to address service gaps in remote areas.
After meeting with the health system and residents in recent months, Armanini told Spotlight PA in a statement that he thinks “a workable solution will evolve.”
“I believe Penn Highlands Elk is doing its due diligence in being the voice for the community on demanding health care services in their area,” he said. “We all know the difficulties associated with the healthcare industry, and for a community to speak up and ask why is a good scenario.”
Armanini added that he understands why someone in Elk County wouldn’t be interested in traveling to a facility at least 50 miles away and that it’s up to the health system to provide reliable care to each region it serves.
“The maternity unit closure is a huge factor for the region as it does extend delivery time for transportation and immediate care, so they need to have in place a solution to cover this change,” he said.
But community members and local elected officials have assumed most of the responsibility to find solutions.
When the maternity unit closure was announced, local first responders made plans to brush up on birth training — expecting it to happen more often with pregnant patients facing a much longer commute to the nearest maternity unit.
In late September, Missy Lecker, a veteran paramedic in Elk County, delivered a baby in the back of an ambulance parked alongside the road. The crew had pulled over after realizing they weren’t going to make it to Penn Highlands DuBois in time. It was only the second time in her 23-year career that she’s delivered a baby.
While this training is standard for paramedics and other emergency personnel, they’re limited in what kinds of care they can offer to patients in labor, Lecker said.
“If a hand, an arm, comes out first, or a shoulder comes out first, we’re not allowed to deliver that at all,” Lecker told Spotlight PA. “In that case, you drive fast and hope for the best.”
