UPMC Merger Under Way

The UPMC South Side Hospital will be gradually merged into UPMC’s Mercy Hospital, starting tomorrow. The facility will be renamed the UPMC Mercy Hospital South Side Outpatient Center. Among the changes patients can expect are reduction of inpatient services and less emergency care available. The South Side facility’s emergency room will now be called an “Urgent Care Center,” treating only minor injuries and available from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Outpatient services will remain, but spokesperson Susan Manko says “duplicate services” of both facilities, such as inpatient and emergency service, will be cut. Because of the influx of South Side employees, however, the emergency and physical therapy departments of Mercy Hospital will be expanded. Manko says the fate of the South Side building is yet to be decided.