For Melissa Sonday, her husband PJ and the couple’s two boys, Regional Hospital of Scranton is a livelihood.
Melissa Sonday is a longtime registered nurse in the neonatal intensive care unit at Regional’s Moses Taylor Hospital campus, the only NICU in Lackawanna County. Her husband is an RN in Regional’s emergency department, where he transferred after Commonwealth Health shut down Moses Taylor’s ER in 2023. They live in Luzerne borough.
The prospect of the fiscally challenged Scranton hospitals closing if concerted and ongoing efforts to secure new ownership fail is a source of significant anxiety for the Sonday family.
“It’s been very stressful,” Melissa Sonday said. “I was actually making myself kind of go crazy on what to do, because if they close or something happens and we lose our jobs it’s not just one income … it’s both of our incomes. I know there’s other facilities in the area, but what if they’re not hiring? Or, with our family, going back to night shift is something that would be hard for us.
“It’s not just the finding a job, but it’s finding the right job,” she continued. “We have a very set schedule so that one of us is always home with our children, especially during the school year because we don’t have family locally to help us with taking them to school and watching them after work, working 12-hour shifts.”
An aerial view of Moses Taylor Hospital in Scranton on Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Against that backdrop, Sonday, a local vice president with the SEIU Healthcare union at Regional, said she’s hopeful for a deal that secures the hospitals’ long-term futures. But she isn’t getting her hopes up over recent news that the nonprofit Tenor Health Foundation signed a letter of intent to acquire Regional, Moses Taylor and Commonwealth’s Wilkes-Barre General Hospital, a first step in a longer process that could ultimately see the hospitals change hands.
A similar deal for the nonprofit WoodBridge Healthcare to acquire the three Commonwealth hospitals seemed close at hand last year before the transaction collapsed in November, renewing fears that the Scranton facilities could close absent acquisition by another buyer. Elected officials and other stakeholders working for months to facilitate a new deal have expressed cautious optimism that Tenor could be a lifeline, but a skeptical Sonday said uncertainties and unknowns abound.
“What are they going to do? What is their plan? Are they going to expand us? Are they going to fix us? Are they going to close more things? Consolidate more things? Those are the things that we’re worried about, because nobody is telling us anything,” she said. “So we’re kind of just sitting ducks waiting to see what the future holds.”
Wilkes-Barre General
Sonday was also among those surprised by the Wilkes-Barre General Hospital board chairman’s recent announcement that the board opposes the hospital’s proposed sale to Tenor. In a written statement, board Chairman Justin Matus urged Gov. Josh Shapiro and state officials to stop the sale, arguing the “proposed bundling of our facility with the sale of other Commonwealth Health assets to include (Regional Hospital of) Scranton and Moses Taylor will only weaken our ability to serve the community.”
The board statement also expressed concern that a Tenor acquisition could “cause the demise of the hospital itself through the inevitable cannibalization of our resources in attempt to shore up other facilities and priorities of the parent entity.”
In an interview Aug. 8, the date of the board statement, Matus voiced worry about any entity taking over all three hospitals and misgivings about the nonprofit Tenor Health Foundation’s relationship to the for-profit Tenor Health Partners.
“It’s vulture capitalism,” he said. “And, it’s worse, because behind this nonprofit, somewhere out there in the atmosphere is a private equity group.”
Commonwealth Health’s Regional Hospital of Scranton on Jefferson Ave. in Scranton on Wednesday, June 18, 2025. (REBECCA PARTICKA/STAFF PHOTOGRPAHER)
Matus reiterated his concerns Friday while expressing hope that a “better buyer” emerges, even if that requires state support in the form of incentives or partnerships to “sweeten” a potential deal. He specifically mentioned the Pittsburgh-based nonprofit UPMC as an example of a more-preferable buyer, and remains skeptical that Tenor will be able to secure the requisite financing to complete an acquisition of the Commonwealth hospitals.
“When it’s all said and done I think Harrisburg, if they don’t want these hospitals to shut down, they are going to have to partner with someone and maybe even they’re going to have to partner with Tenor,” Matus said. “What I like about UPMC in particular is they have the vertical, they have a health insurance product. … An established health system is what we need, but I will say that is much easier said than done. And I do have the sense that, while I don’t think this Tenor thing will happen, I have no idea what will happen after that. Things may get worse before they get better, actually.”
While Tenor did not respond directly to Matus’ more recent comments, Tenor Health Foundation CEO Radha Savitala provided a statement Aug. 8 reacting to the Wilkes-Barre General board’s announcement opposing the sale.
“We’ve now had the opportunity to review the press release … and agree that Wilkes-Barre General Hospital is staffed by dedicated physicians, nurses and health care professionals dedicated to keeping WBGH a place where caring and healing are the standard,” Savitala’s statement read. “Further, we share the board’s commitment to keeping WBGH alive and vibrant. Tenor Health Foundation looks forward to engaging with Chairman Matus, his fellow board members, and the men and women who have made WBGH a center of excellence, as matters move forward.”
The inclusion of Wilkes-Barre General in the broader sale Tenor is pursuing was somewhat surprising, as the public focus since the WoodBridge deal’s collapse has been on saving Regional and Moses Taylor. A collection of local foundations and nonprofits have provided millions of dollars in temporary support since the spring to keep services running and staff paid at the Scranton hospitals, but Wilkes-Barre General was not and is not in the same financial jeopardy.
Whether those local foundations and nonprofits might consider providing additional financial support to help facilitate the proposed three-hospital acquisition deal remains unclear.
‘Very worried’
Registered Nurse Joyce Sciandra, the acting president of the Wyoming Valley Nurses Association union at Wilkes-Barre General, said she and her colleagues aren’t confident the Tenor acquisition will happen, either. But they’d prefer not to be retained by for-profit Community Health Systems Inc., Commonwealth’s Tennessee-based parent company, and are hopeful the hospital’s next owner, be it Tenor or another entity, will make necessary investments in the facility, staff and service lines, she said.
Several workers at Regional and its Moses Taylor campus echoed that sentiment.
Corinne Cianfichi, an occupational therapist at Moses Taylor for three decades and another local vice president with the SEIU Healthcare union at Regional, said the No. 1 priority has to be keeping the hospitals open. To that end, and to the extent it safeguards the hospitals’ futures, she’s hopeful that the Tenor deal goes through.
But concerns about closure, job loss and other unwanted outcomes persist.
“Of course we are very worried, we are so scared,” she said. “At the same time, we’re health care workers. We’re all in a panic and worried, but at the same time we have to shut this down because we have to focus and come in every single day on time to take care of patients. It’s stressful, but our obligation is (to) this hospital and our patients.”
Like Sonday, Cianfichi was surprised by the Wilkes-Barre General board’s opposition to the prospective Tenor deal.
“I mean I understand their hesitancy,” she said. “I understand their worries. It’s the same worries that we have, but again, we need a buyer.”
Benefit of the doubt
John Wiercinski, a University of Scranton professor of health administration and retired hospital administrator, said officials and stakeholders have to give Tenor the benefit of the doubt at this stage as the process of vetting the prospective buyer continues.
“I think that there’s some hesitation among communities and staff because people have been burned in the past, but that doesn’t mean that if you have one bad chapter you throw out the whole book,” he said. “Each organization who comes in has to be vetted on their individual bench strength and accomplishments, and if in fact they are a viable candidate it’s in the community’s and government’s best interest to move forward.”
Still, he understands the local skepticism about Tenor.
“The devil’s in the details, so if you know an organization it’s easier to get behind them,” Wiercinski said. “But if you don’t know an organization, the preference would be for a local or … a known entity to take over in a lot of these individuals’ minds. So it takes a longer courting period to get comfortable with your suitor before you get married, right? There are certain organizations that are known to the area, so of course it’d be more comfort, but without a local group stepping up we have to expand our search. Here’s an organization who has expressed interest. It requires us to do as much vetting of their process as possible to have a winning situation — to have somebody take over these facilities and run them the right way.”
The winning situation Wiercinski described remains Sonday’s hope, but she said she’s not very confident that a hospital-saving deal with Tenor will happen.
“I won’t believe it until it actually goes through,” she said. “Until everything is actually turned over to Tenor and it is their name on the paperwork, I’m still not getting my hopes up.”