Pottsville, Pa.-based Lehigh Valley Hospital-Schuylkill S. Jackson Street, part of the Lehigh Valley Health Network, will close its emergency room May 1, according to The Morning Call.
The move is part of a consolidation plan with another hospital under the Allentown, Pa.-based health network. Lehigh Valley Hospital-Schuylkill E. Norwegian Street is less than a mile from the Jackson Street campus, and will take over ER services for both hospitals in May.
William Reppy, president of LVH-Schuylkill, told The Morning Call, "The population of Schuylkill doesn't support multiple emergency rooms." He said the county's population has been decreasing over the past 20 years.
The two hospitals have also consolidated inpatient beds during the past two years, with the number of combined beds falling from 245 to 169 from 2016-18, according to municipal data cited by the report.
No jobs will be affected by the ER consolidation.