Pike County remains the only county in the state of Pennsylvania without a hospital or urgent care facility. That could soon change.
The Pike Medical Foundation received a $500,000 grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services for equipment to build the first-ever planned community hospital in Pike County.
Pike County Commissioner Ronald Schmalzle said that, for decades, the county has relied on neighboring counties and states to provide healthcare given its small population. But the county has become the fastest growing county in the state between 2020 and 2024, increasing 6.5 percent during that time period. Schmalzle said the county’s population of about 60,000 residents can double or even triple during peak seasons.
“Most of the people that are moving to Pike County are from the New York Metropolitan area where they have the finest health care in the world and access to it, so it has been our number one priority, since I’ve been here and prior to that, to improve healthcare services in Pike County,” said Schmalzle.
Without a local hospital or urgent care facility, county residents often seek healthcare at nearby hospitals like Wayne Memorial Hospital and Lehigh Valley Hospital. Longer travel distances for healthcare puts a burden on not only on residents but also EMS providers that need to take patients further away.
Schmalzle says a viable business plan for a county hospital has never worked until now. He believes the future of healthcare systems will lean on small efficiently-run hospitals operated by a smaller number of healthcare providers. “The large, large hospital systems struggle financially because of all the enormous costs in keeping a facility going,” he said.
The Pike Medical Foundation Committee has identified the Lehigh Valley Health Network hospital in Macungie, P.A. as the prototype of the community hospital it plans to build in Pike County. Schmalzle said that the Pike County facility could have a total of 24 beds: 12 beds on one side for 24/7 emergency services and 12 beds on the other side for patients who require overnight stays.
For now, Schmalzle has some good news while residents wait for its first hospital: a planned urgent care facility is expected to open in Delaware Township in the next month and will be run by Northwell Health.
Despite federal healthcare cuts from President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill, Schmalzle told Radio Catskill that “there’s been no slowdown in the support for [Pike County] through the federal government in creating a system here and the urgent cares here.”
The estimated cost to build Pike County’s community hospital is $30 million. To date, Schmalzle said the fund has more than $2.5 million towards the project, with efforts underway to keep growing the fund.
Image (from left to right): Pike Medical Foundation Committee Member Charlie Gillinder, Representative Jeff Olsommer, Pike County Commissioners Christa Caceres and Matthew Osterberg, Senator Lisa Baker, Pike County Commissioner Ronald Schmalzle, Greater Pike Community Foundation Executive Director Rick Little; and Greater Pike Community Foundation Jacqueline Damian (Photo Credit: Shannon DeVuyst, Pike County Government)