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Let us say up front that we hope the day never comes when Warren General Hospital leadership would need to consider a transition to becoming a Rural Emergency Hospital.
Such a move would say a lot about efforts to reverse our region's longtime trend of population loss and struggles to secure high enough reimbursement rates from the federal government. Pennsylvania currently has no Rural Emergency Hospitals, with legislation introduced recently by Sen. Lisa Baker creating a new state license category for Rural Emergency Hospitals. The designation would allow a Critical Access Hospital or a rural hospital with 50 or fewer beds to convert to a federally designated Rural Emergency Hospital. The Rural Emergency Hospital designation was created to provide eligible rural hospitals with an alternative to closure while continuing to provide emergency, observation and outpatient services. Under the federal model, Rural Emergency Hospitals receive Medicare reimbursement for covered services, as well as an additional monthly facility payment.
The designation itself is a relatively new development, having been created in 2023.
In Westfield, located a stone's throw away from the Pennsylvania state line near North East, Westfield Memorial Hospital has transitioned from a small inpatient hospital to a 24/7 emergency, observation, and outpatient care facility. Its experience reflects research in a 2025 National Institute of Health study that says Rural Emergency Hospitals represent some of the most resource‐constrained rural hospitals whose inpatient role has steadily diminished, have occupancy rates that are relatively low, and whose financial viability depends increasingly on outpatient and emergency services. The Rural Emergency Hospital designation presents an opportunity for those rural, resource-constrained hospitals to to align operations with a payment model that reflects how they already function.
The program isn't perfect. Hospitals that consider such a transition are giving up flexibility for increased funding
not perfect. The National Institute of Health study found that residents with fewer resources or mobility constraints were more likely to seek care locally at a Rural Emergency Hospital while younger or more mobile people often bypassed the Rural Emergency Hospital for larger regional hospitals.
Rural Emergency Hospitals aren't perfect, and we hope Warren General Hospital never needs to consider the program. But we think state legislators should give serious consideration to Baker's bill to create a potential lifeline that can keep rural hospitals open for those who can't easily travel to bigger hospitals in Erie or Pittsburgh.
Ask yourself this – would you rather be Westfield, N.Y., which has a Rural Emergency Hospital affiliated with the Allegheny Health Network, or be in the same position the Bradford community finds itself in right now?