Investigation ongoing in Dickson City hospital blaze
DICKSON CITY — The fire that tore through parts of Lehigh Valley Hospital-Dickson City late Wednesday and forced the evacuation of 77 patients in frigid temperatures prompted a multifront response that continued Thursday, with investigators probing the blaze and other local hospitals caring for patients transferred amid the emergency.
There were no injuries reported as a result of the fire that broke out about 9:30 p.m. Wednesday — sending skyward flames through the roof of the Dickson City hospital’s orthopedic center into the frosty air — but Lackawanna County EMA Director Tom Taylor said the hospital’s third and fourth floors sustained smoke damage and the orthopedic side of the facility appeared to be “a total loss.”
A hospital spokesperson said Thursday it remains “temporarily closed while teams conduct thorough damage assessments and plan for a safe reopening.” Individuals still seeking to reunite with family or loved ones should call 610-402-0498.
During the evacuation, patients in wheelchairs and on stretchers or walking with help from staff were relocated to an adjacent building at 316 Main Ave. in the borough. Evacuated patients were triaged, with critical patients transported first to hospitals across the region, Taylor said, noting Thursday that all patients had been transported to other hospitals within three hours of the start of the fire.
It was not immediately clear Thursday how many of the 77 evacuated patients remained at other hospitals, but Geisinger said Thursday morning that 12 such patients were transported to Geisinger Community Medical Center in Scranton and one to Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center in Plains Twp. Of the 13, five were in fair condition as of 8:25 a.m., three were in good condition, one was in critical condition and four had been treated and released.
Another two had been treated and released by Thursday afternoon, per an update Geisinger provided about 3:30 p.m. Of the seven that remained at that point — six at GCMC and one GWV — five were in good condition, one was in fair condition and one was in serious condition, Geisinger said.
“Lehigh Valley Health Network is reaching out to the families directly and we’re thankful to all those hospitals for stepping up and ensuring continuity of care for every single patient,” Bresnahan said. “That’s because hospital teams and first responders here in Northeastern Pennsylvania know how to handle moments like this. They show up, keep calm and they take care of their neighbors.”
Bresnahan noted in a phone interview Thursday that he discussed the Dickson City situation with Dr. Mehmet Oz, administrator for the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, who “pledged any and all support through CMS.” The congressman has also been in communication with the White House, he said.
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The Dickson City hospital is one of the newer health care facilities in the region.
The for-profit, physician-owned Coordinated Health broke ground at the Dickson City site in January 2019, after acquiring Scranton Orthopaedic Specialists in 2017. But work on what would have been called Coordinated Health Scranton Hospital soon stalled, and didn’t resume in earnest until after nonprofit Lehigh Valley Health Network acquired Coordinated in December 2019.
Officials gathered at the site to announce plans for an expanded hospital in October 2020, after construction had resumed.
The acquisition and the hospital project marked Lehigh Valley Health Network’s first major foray into Lackawanna County and the Scranton area. The new Dickson City hospital also filled a void in the Midvalley region left when Mid Valley Hospital, a Commonwealth Health facility in Blakely, eliminated inpatient services and its emergency room in 2014.
The new hospital ultimately opened in May 2022 with a 19-bay emergency room. It celebrated in June 2023 the addition of seven ICU beds and nine new medical-surgical beds on a previously unfinished fourth floor of the then roughly year-old facility.
Lehigh Valley Health Network and Philadelphia-based Jefferson Health completed a merger in 2024, closing the transaction that summer.
The cause of Wednesday’s fire remains under investigation.