From top left to right: Jessika Haynos, Fadel Balawi, Richard Anderson, Bill Moyer, Elizabeth Dierking, Nicole Nye, Israel Zighelboim. From bottom left to right: Allison Blackburn, Betsy Schmeltzle, Peter Sawin, Emelia Milano-Sawin, Kristin Milano, Keri Angelozzi, Joel Fagerstrom, Jennifer Janco. Kristin Milano’s daughter was born at the Allentown Campus in 2018, and she will deliver her second child there in May.

With a snip of oversized shears, a mother who gave birth to her first child at St. Luke’s Allentown Campus cut a ceremonial ribbon today to open its new Women & Babies Pavilion. This expanded facility will increase the community’s access to high-quality birthing, post-partum and newborn services, including neonatal intensive care.

The five-story, 85,000 square-foot tower, built onto the east side of the hospital, will meet the growing patient needs for these services at this hospital campus. Babies will be delivered here starting February 14.

Today marks a significant milestone in our continued commitment to providing exceptional care for mothers and infants, and it’s a delivery on the promise for a bigger and better hospital for our patients and our community.

“This incredible facility is complimented by the most amazing and caring team of providers, nurses and support staff who work as a team to ensure the best experience for expecting families,” said Bill Moyer, St. Luke’s West Region President.

The new addition, which doubled the size of the hospital’s previous unit, can accommodate several thousand patients a year.

Three floors of the wing are being put into service immediately. The second floor houses the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), where babies born prematurely will be cared for versus. LifeAire air purification technology creates an ultra-sterile, negative air flow environment on this unit to protect the tiny and often ill newborns, their parents and caregivers from infections.

The third floor’s Labor & Delivery Unit and fourth floor Post-partum Unit contain additional rooms and amenities, with each floor almost twice the size of the hospital’s former unit.

“We are thrilled to give patients access to this brand-new facility, new services and an increased level of care, which enables babies to remain in their own community with their families,” said Elizabeth Dierking, MD, Chair of St. Luke’s Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology. “Delivering access to safe care of the highest quality starts families on a happier and healthier journey.”

St. Luke’s Allentown has been voted the Morning Call Readers’ Choice as the Best Place to Have a Baby. St. Luke’s patients get to know their physician through their prenatal care and that physician will then deliver their baby. The state-of-the-art birthing units there offer parents the comforts of a safe, family-centered atmosphere to welcome their new babies into the world. St. Luke’s is a leader in perinatal care, high-risk deliveries and breastfeeding education. Its NICUs provide advanced care to critically ill newborns and premature babies.

The building’s ground, first and fifth floors are shelled in for future use. Construction site preparation, and renovations to existing hospital “tie in” points, began in August 2022. Excavation work for the new tower began in November 2022, and the structure’s first steel beams were erected the following month.

 

About St. Luke’s

Founded in 1872, St. Luke’s University Health Network (SLUHN) is a fully integrated, regional, non-profit network of more than 20,000 employees providing services at 15 campuses and 300+ outpatient sites.  With annual net revenue of $3.4 billion, the Network’s service area includes 11 counties in two states: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey. St. Luke’s hospitals operate the largest network of trauma centers in Pennsylvania, with the Bethlehem Campus being home to St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital.

Dedicated to advancing medical education, St. Luke’s is the preeminent teaching hospital in central-eastern Pennsylvania.  In partnership with Temple University, the Network established the Lehigh Valley’s first and only four-year medical school campus.  It also operates the nation’s longest continuously operating School of Nursing, established in 1884, and 45 fully accredited graduate medical educational programs with more than 400 residents and fellows. In 2022, St. Luke’s, a member of the Children’s Hospital Association, opened the Lehigh Valley’s first and only free-standing facility dedicated entirely to kids.

SLUHN is the only Lehigh Valley-based health care system to earn Medicare’s five-star ratings (the highest) for quality, efficiency and patient satisfaction.  It is both a Leapfrog Group and Healthgrades Top Hospital and a Newsweek World’s Best Hospital.  The Network’s flagship University Hospital has earned the 100 Top Major Teaching Hospital designation from Fortune/PINC AI 11 times total and eight years in a row, including in 2023 when it was identified as THE #4 TEACHING HOSPITAL IN THE COUNTRY.  In 2021, St. Luke’s was identified as one of the 15 Top Health Systems nationally.  Utilizing the Epic electronic medical record (EMR) system for both inpatient and outpatient services, the Network is a multi-year recipient of the Most Wired award recognizing the breadth of the SLUHN’s information technology applications such as telehealth, online scheduling and online pricing information.  The Network is also recognized as one of the state’s lowest cost providers.

Information provided to TVL by:
Sam Kennedy