LETTER: Precursor to closing?
On July 31, this newspaper reported on the opening of a UPMC urgent care clinic in Waynesburg.
Is this beneficial to Waynesburg and the Greene County region? I would say yes.
Is this a good business move? I would say yes again. After all, WVU Medicine has its own walk-in clinic, along with doctors’ offices, just around the corner and up the hill. “Competition is good,” some may say.
Might this be a precursor to the closing of “UPMC Greene,” a facility whose existence is threatened by proposed Medicaid cuts? I would answer, perhaps.
This hospital has a troubled financial history. There was a sellout to a “for profit” entity in 2005 and a subsequent buyout by Washington Hospital in 2015. A recent report from the Pennsylvania Healthcare Cost Containment Council (PHC4) revealed a negative operating cost of 6.13% in 2024, as reported in this newspaper on July 23.
Could UPMC’s action be yet another example of sending its monopolistic tendrils creeping further out into our world? I would hazard a guess of … yes.
Douglas T. Corwin Jr.
East Washington