General Hospital Plans $40 Million ICU Tower Project

3/19/2016

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (March 20, 2016) – Commonwealth Health Wilkes-Barre General Hospital will begin a $40 million construction project later this year that will increase its capacity for critical care.

The project is set to begin in the third quarter of this year with a targeted completion date of the end of 2017.

The project calls for construction of an additional floor on the existing three-story Heart & Vascular Institute. Currently the emergency department is on the ground floor and the Heart & Vascular Institute is housed on the second floor. An existing third floor is an empty, unused shell that will be converted into patient rooms. The additional fourth floor will also be converted into patient rooms. The third and fourth floors will have a total of 34 beds and will house the intensive care unit, critical care unit and cardiovascular intensive care unit.

A “mechanical penthouse” to house all equipment and machinery will be built above the fourth floor and a floor with a helipad and helicopter access will be constructed on the top of the tower.

“We are very excited about this significant project and the opportunity to provide our community with a more modern intensive care unit and updated private patient rooms throughout the rest of the hospital,” Cor Catena, CEO of Wilkes-Barre General Hospital and Commonwealth Health, said. “This continues our commitment to invest in our community, our health care delivery system, and furthers our mission to provide excellent care to the people of Luzerne County and surrounding areas.”

Moving the ICU departments into the new building will allow for the conversion of the majority of the hospital’s semi-private rooms to private rooms. The project also includes renovations to about 200 existing patient rooms.