Bradford Regional Medical Center will close its inpatient, emergency and long-term care services by mid-2026, marking a continuing downward trend for Pennsylvania’s rural hospitals.
New York-based Kaleida Health owns the Bradford hospital and announced on Tuesday that it had submitted a formal closure notice to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. In a press release, the company blamed the region’s declining population and federal funding cuts.
“Federal funding cuts and long-standing financial pressures across the healthcare industry have accelerated the challenges we face and the decisions we are considering or have already made,” said Don Boyd, the president and CEO of Kaleida Health, in a press release shared with WPSU.
Kaleida officials said the hospital in Bradford has lost an average of $10 million every year since 2021, and that they tried to convert the hospital to an outpatient emergency department without inpatient beds. But, Pennsylvania law doesn't allow for that.
Lisa Davis, the director of the Pennsylvania Office of Rural Health, said since Kaleida took over the Bradford Regional Medical Center, they’ve already moved other services to Olean, New York about half an hour away, including surgeries and OBGYN care.
“This will contribute to more of a health care desert versus a maternity desert, which we're already seeing up in that area," Davis said.
Davis said these closures contribute to a decline in rural health care, especially in northwestern Pennsylvania, where there is now an eight-county maternity care desert.
"Bradford's too big of a community. I mean, we really need a hospital," said Marty Wilder, a McKean County commissioner. "It'll be devastating."
Wilder said rural communities are under assault, and impending changes to the Medicaid program will likely mean similar cuts at hospitals across the state.
“I’m sure we’re not going to be the only one," Wilder said. "Once Medicaid cutbacks kick in, it’s going to become real for a lot of people in a lot of towns.”
Governor Josh Shapiro’s office estimates more than 310,000 Pennsylvanians could lose Medicaid coverage next year when new work and paperwork requirements go into effect. Rural hospitals largely rely on Medicaid reimbursements.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health has to approve Kaledia Health’s plan before it can end inpatient, emergency and long-term care services at the Bradford hospital. There will still be primary care and specific speciality clinics, including cardiology, medical oncology, pediatrics, general surgery and wound care, orthopedics and sports medicine, occupational health, women’s health, urology and a lab draw station.
You can read the full response from Kaleida below:
