Guthrie Cited By State Surveyors

By Walter F. Roche Jr.

Two Bradford County hospitals have been cited by state surveyors for failing to inform the state health department in advance of reductions in available services.
Cited were the Robert Packer Hospital and the Guthrie Towanda Memorial Hospital, both part of the Guthrie Medical Group.
According to an inspection report recently made public by the state Health Department, Towanda hospital officials failed to provide at least 60 days notice of plans to cease providing an existing health care service or reducing its licensed bed complement.
The report states that a hospital employee acknowledged to a health department inspector that only 10 patient beds were available, although the hospital was licensed for 35 beds.
A review of hospital records showed the patient census generally ranged from two to ten patients. The maximum amount was 14 and that was for a single day.
The hospital employee told the state surveyor that the decision to reduce the bed count was made on May 8 "and is not permanent."
According to the report the hospital employee also acknowledged that the hospital ceased performing outpatient pulmonary function tests on March 28 "at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic."
"Employee One confirmed the closure was related to the Covid-19 pandemic," the report states.
Towanda President Felissa Koernig issued a statement denying that the closure was related to the pandemic.
"While Guthrie Towanda has not decreased the number of licensed beds, the hospital has adjusted its staffing levels to better align with recently declining average daily census numbers," Koernig wrote.
"This is not related to Covid-19,"she continued, adding that the hospital "inadvertently" failed to notify the state Health Department.
She added that if at any time patient care "requires Guthrie Towanda to increase its number of staffed beds, the hospital is prepared to do so and would notify the Pennsylvania Department of Health."
At the 267 bed Robert Packer Hospital in Sayre, state surveyors cited officials for failing to notify the state of an "infrastructure failure" when it reduced the number of available beds in the Behavioral Science Unit.
According to the report the beds were cut to seven due to staffing issues. The hospital filed a plan of correction in which it said the required report was filed and any future infrastructure failures would be reported within 24 hours.
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