Paige Cognetti is now running for Congress against Republican incumbent Rob Bresnahan
Geisinger Community Medical Center operates one of just two emergency rooms in Scranton, Pa. In 2023, its leaders advanced a plan to expand its ER, citing a lack of space for hospital beds that left doctors treating patients in closets and bathrooms. Scranton mayor Paige Cognetti (D.), now running for Congress against Republican incumbent Rep. Rob Bresnahan (Pa.), portrayed the expansion as necessary for her constituents’ health. Then she approved a zoning plan that effectively killed it.
The zoning fight centered on concerns from residents living near the hospital that the expansion would include a parking garage that was too tall and blocked sunlight. Cognetti initially downplayed those concerns, telling the Scranton Times-Tribune that “in every compromise there are always going to be folks that feel that they’re on the short end of the stick” before warning a restrictive zoning plan could mean “we don’t have that institution in our city anymore.”
“We cannot be in a position where we are deterring or blocking health care providers from effectively running their operations,” she said. “That runs counter to our long-term goals and, most importantly, against the best interests of our residents and their health.” Indeed, a lack of beds in the Geisinger ER meant that as many as 10 patients a day were forced to seek emergency care elsewhere due to excessive wait times. Others received medical exams in “makeshift areas” like “closets” and “bathrooms,” an emergency physician affiliated with Geisinger said at the time.
Scranton’s city council, which Cognetti chairs, nonetheless sided against the hospital, voting in May 2023 to limit the height of any new hospital structures to 45 feet, well below the 100-foot threshold the hospital requested. A Geisinger official said it would be “rather difficult” to move forward with the expansion under that zoning plan. Cognetti—who, as mayor, has the power to veto any city council ordinance—supported it anyway, saying the plan “showed what a public process is supposed to be.”
Cognetti signed the zoning ordinance on May 11, 2023, records obtained by the Washington Free Beacon show. Geisinger shelved its expansion project one year later.
“The zoning ordinance that was amended and approved by Scranton City Council last year was a setback to our growth plans for Geisinger Community Medical Center,” a hospital spokesman said in June 2024. “As we continue to see more patients at GCMC and our need for more capacity continues to grow, we are in the process of re-evaluating long-term expansion options and will share more when we determine the appropriate path forward.”
The zoning ordeal is becoming relevant again as Scranton’s medical infrastructure faces an uncertain future. Two other Scranton-area hospitals—including one that operates the only other emergency room in the area—are up for sale, prompting concerns they could close and place an even heavier burden on Geisinger’s under-resourced ER.
“[W]e have 33,000 emergency room visits a year, with 1,800 NICU births that take place right just in Lackawanna County,” Bresnahan, who represents the area, said last month. “So we want to make sure that there’s a continuity of care in Northeastern Pennsylvania because of our location. We have to make sure that we’re taking care of our own people.”
Cognetti did not respond to a request for comment. The Scranton mayor has attempted to place health care at the center of her race against Bresnahan, railing against GOP Medicaid reforms. At the same time, Cognetti has acknowledged the potential loss of Scranton’s hospitals is unrelated to any federal legislation.
“These cuts—a trillion dollars of Medicaid cuts—across the country are going to have an enormous impact on our entire economy and health care system,” she said during a recent radio interview. “We already are worried about the loss of our hospitals, Regional and Moses, in Scranton that is unrelated to these cuts.”
