Nov 21, 2014 3 min read

WAYNESBURG – The state health center in Greene County, closed by the state Department of Health a year and a half ago, will be required to reopen as the result of a ruling issued Thursday by the state Supreme Court.

The court, in a decision issued on a lawsuit filed by SEIU Healthcare PA and local legislators, ruled the department must re-establish centers in counties where they were closed as part of Gov. Tom Corbett’s consolidation plan.

SEIU and local legislators, including state Rep. Pam Snyder, D-Jefferson, and state Sen. Tim Solobay, D-Canonsburg, filed suit in April 2013 attempting to stop the Corbett administration from implementing a plan that would close 26 of the 60 state health centers and eliminate 26 community nurse positions.

The suit maintained the closings violated state law, Act 87 of 1996, that required the department to continue operating all public health centers that were open as of July 1, 1995. That law, it said, could not be amended without action by the legislature.

The suit further claimed the closing of the centers would reduce the level of health services available especially to residents of rural counties.

The Supreme Court agreed with plaintiffs in regard to the language of Act 87 and concluded the administration must “cease reducing the number of Centers, re-establish Centers in counties in which they have been unlawfully closed, cease reducing the level of public health services, and restore the level of public health services to that which existed July 1, 1995.”

Snyder said she was pleased with the decision.

“Greene County needs its own health center,” she said. “I get calls in my office from people needing the kinds of services offered by the centers and it would be nice to refer them to an office in Waynesburg,” she said.

The Greene County center, which was on Oakview Drive in Franklin Township, was staffed by one nurse and a secretary. It provided immunizations to people who are uninsured or under-insured, conducted HIV and STD testing and held flu and tuberculosis clinics.

The Greene County center closed in August 2013 and was consolidated with the center in Washington.

The Health Department maintained it was modernizing the community health center system, which was in place since the late 1970s and early 1980s. Its plan, it said, would allow health center nurses to spend more time providing services in the community rather than from behind a desk or in an office.

The department said it would have its nurses at regularly scheduled events in each county or have nurses go to people’s homes, as needed, to provide health services.

Aimee Tysarczyk, department press secretary, said the department is still reviewing the court decision.

“We are still reviewing the ruling in full to determine the implications to the plan moving forward and will be providing additional communication to the public and to our staff as soon as that review is complete,” she said in an email response to questions.

As a result of the court decision, the department will also be required to reopen health centers in Potter, Carbon, Mifflin, Fulton, Somerset, Beaver, Blair, Snyder, Armstrong, Clinton, Pike, Susquehanna, Columbia, and Union and Westmoreland counties, according to the SEIU.