WellSpan Chambersburg (Pa.) Hospital stopped providing inpatient pediatric care Dec. 22, Chambersburg Public Opinion first reported.
The hospital offered pediatric inpatient care through a partnership with Chambersburg-based Keystone Health. However, Keystone pediatricians will no longer provide high-acuity inpatient pediatric care at the facility, both health systems confirmed to Chambersburg Public Opinion. Children requiring a higher level of inpatient care will be transferred to other facilities in the state.
Chambersburg Hospital will still offer emergency, surgical, orthopedic, and ear, nose and throat services for pediatric patients. The change does not affect the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit, and Keystone pediatricians will still treat newborns at the hospital, a spokesperson for WellSpan told Becker's Dec. 26.
An undisclosed number of employees, including pediatric nurses, were moved to other positions in the hospital as a result of the change.
"As pediatric volumes have been low at times, we have trained our pediatric nurses to work in other areas of the hospital so that they may retain full employment. In doing so they can now care for other patients," the spokesperson told Becker's.
Chambersburg Hospital said it admitted about 300 pediatric patients annually, according to Chambersburg Public Opinion.