HARRISBURG – Sen. Frank Farry, R-Langhorne, chair of the Senate Institutional Sustainability and Innovation Committee, led a public hearing May 7 focused on the ongoing crisis facing hospitals across Pennsylvania, including closures, critical staffing shortages and access to specialty care.

The hearing, held at the state Capitol, brought together health care leaders and policy experts from across the commonwealth to offer testimony on the structural and financial challenges hospitals face, particularly in rural and underserved communities.

“Pennsylvanians should have access to reliable, quality care no matter where they live,” said Farry. “(This) hearing emphasized that without swift and strategic action, communities could lose vital health services, leaving patients with limited or no options for urgent or specialized care.”

Testifiers included representatives from major health care systems including Nicole Stallings, president and CEO of the Hospital and HealthSystem Association of Pennsylvania (HAP); Dr. Mark Rubino of Allegheny Health Network; Steven M. Fontaine, CEO of Penn Highlands Healthcare; Katherine E. Levins of Temple University Health System; and Dr. Ed Sabanegh, president and CEO of the Guthrie Clinic.

One of the key issues raised during the hearing was the increasing financial pressures on hospitals caused by inflation, workforce demands and reimbursement challenges.

“My main message today is that the hospital community in Pennsylvania is in a very fragile state and the solutions to address future closures have to be forward- thinking, comprehensive and sustainable,” Stallings said. “More than half of the commonwealth’s acute care hospitals are operating in the red. Many are facing multi-year operating losses. When hospital closures are announced, other hospitals in nearby communities are often called upon and expected to step in and ensure access to care continues.”

Persistent shortages of health care staff, particularly nurses and allied health professionals, was another focus of the hearing.

“Sometimes our industry is accused of crying wolf on professional shortages, but as the leader of two hospitals, I can tell you that the shortages are real and the vacancy rates are high,” said Rubino. “We’re doing our best, but at Allegheny Health Network, we have some hospital units that are empty – not because we lack patient demand, but because we can’t staff them. The volume is there, the space is there but we physically can’t accommodate the patients because we don’t have the staffing.”

The cascading effects of hospital closures, which are contributing to longer emergency response times and reduced access to care across many regions, were also discussed among the testifiers and committee members.

“Hospital sustainability is not just a healthcare issue — it’s a public safety and economic issue,” Farry said. “We will take what we heard today and work toward bipartisan solutions that strengthen our health care infrastructure and protect Pennsylvania patients.”