Sentinel photo by BRADLEY KREITZER
Geisinger-Lewistown Hospital Director of Operations A.J. Hartsock speaks to the Rotary Club of Lewistown Tuesday.

LEWISTOWN — The Geisinger-Lewistown Hospital director of operations, A.J. Hartsock highlighted capital projects Tuesday afternoon during a meeting with the Rotary Club of Lewistown.

Geisinger-Lewistown Hospital recently completed a new hybrid operating room (OR) suite or intervational room.

The hospital has the capability to do electrophysiology which, according to Hartsock, is a low-level heart procedure.

Hartsock said this new operating room prevents patients from traveling to Danville to have the heart procedure done.

The hospital also offers interventional radiology with the hybrid OR; Hartsock said this room is especially good for dialysis patients.

“I believe we were somewhere around 140 patients a month that were traveling to Danville for these procedures that are now being done locally.” Hartsock said, “This was a big one for us that we could now bring these procedures close to the community.”

The hospital also uses the new OR for vascular and pain procedures.

Hartsock said Geisinger-Lewistown Hospital added other technology to the operating room department. This technology includes a MAKO robot used for knee and shoulder surgeries.

“If you are familiar with our orthopedics it has grown a lot in the past three years.” Hartsock said, “We went from really only two local physicians to a team of eight between orthopedics and what we are doing around sports medicine.”

According to Hartsock, the MAKO robot reduces the time it takes a patient to recover from knee replacements and Geisinger-Lewistown the only hospital in the region with this capability.

He added that Geisinger-Lewistown Hospital will also add a surgical robot next year. The DaVinci Xi will allow the hospital to perform more neurological procedures. Hartsock said the robots simply help surgeons execute less invasive practices.

Hartsock outlined upcoming projects for Geisinger-Lewistown Hospital in the next year.

The first is a new infusion center at the hospital which will primarily center around cancer care. Hartsock said currently, chemotherapy and other types of infusions are done in what would be considered the basement of the hospital.

This new infusion center will be located on the fifth floor of Geisinger-Lewistown Hospital with full windows and an expanded capability to accommodate more patients.

Some renovation will occur on third floor of the hospital with the addition of new nephrology and rheumatology clinics.

“We have a population in this county that we have a lot of dialysis patients, a lot of patients that have kidney disease. So this will bring the physicians much closer for inpatient dialysis and expand our capabilities and do some work in the hospital,” Hartsock said.

Hartsock also offered details about the construction of the new clinic in Reedsville. The new facility, according to Hartsock, will serve two functions.

The first function for the building is a primary care clinic with four to five physicians and x-ray and lab capabilities as well as pharmacy.

This new facility will also be home to a 65 Forward Clinic. The clinic portion will be more for personalized care specific to those individuals over the age of 65.

Hartsock said the average primary care physician has about 1,500 to 2,000 patients that they treat. The doctors at the 65 Forward Clinic will be limited to 425 patients so they can focus on individual care.

“(Patients) will get better access and longer visits, but really the goal is to keep you out of the hospital if we can help it,” Hartsock said.

The clinic will include a community room and workout center for patients who are part of the program.

During his presentation, Hartsock also gave an update on COVID in the region. Hartsock said in September, the numbers of those infected began to rise.

“What we were hoping is that when it went back down in November that it was kind of the end of this particular wave, but it really hasn’t.” Hartsock said, “The hospitals are really full right now. I think it is important for us to all realize that and recognize. Sometimes until it impacts you or your family you don’t realize what’s happening in the hospitals.”

Hartsock also said that Geisinger-Lewistown Hospital continues to delay elective surgeries and has been since early September. According to Hartsock, the hospital has hundreds of procedures backlogged that they are unable to do because of the amount of COVID cases.

Hartsock said the key message he wanted to convey was that the number of patients that have to be treated in the intensive care unit is trending in the wrong direction.

“Last week we had Mount Nittany Hospital who was on ER diversion, meaning they weren’t picking up any more patients via ambulance. Tyrone went on divert for a short period of time. But I can tell you every single Geisinger hospital is at capacity. We got beds in places we shouldn’t have beds. So it’s very real. It’s very real,” Hartsock said.

Hartsock also spoke about the importance of COVID-19 vaccinations.

According to Geisinger-Lewistown Hospital data, the hospital has given almost 24,000 first and second dose vaccinations, but only 3,700 third or booster vaccinations.

The data also shows that 86% of patients in Geisinger-Lewistown Hospital with COVID-19 are not fully vaccinated.

Of the 71 patients in the intensive care unit with COVID-19, 93% are not fully vaccinated and 44 of the 46 patients on ventilators with COVID-19 are not fully vaccinated.

“So it’s not that you can’t get COVID, and it’s not that COVID can’t make you sick if you get the vaccine. But there is no doubt that it is helping keep people out of the hospital,” Hartsock said.