{"id":127357,"date":"2024-02-12T23:12:07","date_gmt":"2024-02-13T04:12:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=127357"},"modified":"2024-02-12T23:12:07","modified_gmt":"2024-02-13T04:12:07","slug":"st-lukes-allentown-campus-opens-new-women-babies-pavilion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=127357","title":{"rendered":"St. Luke\u2019s Allentown Campus Opens New Women & Babies Pavilion"},"content":{"rendered":"

From top left to right:\u00a0<\/strong>Jessika Haynos, Fadel Balawi, Richard Anderson, Bill Moyer, Elizabeth Dierking, Nicole Nye, Israel Zighelboim.\u00a0From bottom left to right:\u00a0<\/strong>Allison Blackburn, Betsy Schmeltzle, Peter Sawin, Emelia Milano-Sawin, Kristin Milano, Keri Angelozzi, Joel Fagerstrom, Jennifer Janco. Kristin Milano\u2019s daughter was born at the Allentown Campus in 2018, and she will deliver her second child there in May.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

With a snip of oversized shears, a mother who gave birth to her first child at St. Luke\u2019s Allentown Campus cut a ceremonial ribbon today to open its new Women & Babies Pavilion. This expanded facility will increase the community\u2019s access to high-quality birthing, post-partum and newborn services, including neonatal intensive care.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
A room in the new Women & Babies Pavilion<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Today marks a significant milestone in our continued commitment to providing exceptional care for mothers and infants, and it\u2019s a delivery on the promise for a bigger and better hospital for our patients and our community.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis 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,\u201d said Bill Moyer, St. Luke\u2019s West Region President.<\/p>\n

The new addition, which doubled the size of the hospital\u2019s previous unit, can accommodate several thousand patients a year.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The third floor\u2019s Labor & Delivery Unit and fourth floor Post-partum Unit contain additional rooms and amenities, with each floor almost twice the size of the hospital\u2019s former unit.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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,\u201d said Elizabeth Dierking, MD, Chair of St. Luke\u2019s Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology. \u201cDelivering access to safe care of the highest quality starts families on a happier and healthier journey.\u201d<\/p>\n

St. Luke\u2019s Allentown has been voted the Morning Call Readers\u2019 Choice as the Best Place to Have a Baby. St. Luke\u2019s 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\u2019s is a leader in perinatal care, high-risk deliveries and breastfeeding education. Its NICUs provide advanced care to critically ill newborns and premature babies.<\/p>\n

The building\u2019s ground, first and fifth floors are shelled in for future use. Construction site preparation, and renovations to existing hospital \u201ctie in\u201d points, began in August 2022. Excavation work for the new tower began in November 2022, and the structure\u2019s first steel beams were erected the following month.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

About St. Luke\u2019s<\/strong><\/p>\n

Founded in 1872,\u00a0St. Luke\u2019s University Health Network<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0(SLUHN) is a fully integrated, regional, non-profit network of more than 20,000 employees providing services at 15 campuses and 300+ outpatient sites.\u00a0 With annual net revenue of $3.4 billion, the Network\u2019s 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\u2019s hospitals operate the largest network of trauma centers in Pennsylvania, with the Bethlehem Campus being home to St. Luke\u2019s Children\u2019s Hospital.<\/p>\n

Dedicated to advancing medical education, St. Luke\u2019s is the preeminent teaching hospital in central-eastern Pennsylvania.\u00a0 In partnership with Temple University, the Network established the Lehigh Valley\u2019s first and only four-year medical school campus.\u00a0 It also operates the nation\u2019s 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\u2019s, a member of the Children\u2019s Hospital Association, opened the Lehigh Valley\u2019s first and only free-standing facility dedicated entirely to kids.<\/p>\n

SLUHN is the only Lehigh Valley-based health care system to earn Medicare\u2019s\u00a0five-star<\/em>\u00a0ratings (the highest) for quality, efficiency and patient satisfaction.\u00a0 It is both a Leapfrog Group and Healthgrades\u00a0Top Hospital<\/em>\u00a0and a Newsweek World\u2019s\u00a0Best Hospital<\/em>.\u00a0 The Network\u2019s flagship University Hospital has earned the\u00a0100 Top Major Teaching Hospital<\/em>\u00a0designation 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.\u00a0 In 2021, St. Luke\u2019s was identified as one of the\u00a015 Top Health Systems<\/em>\u00a0nationally.\u00a0 Utilizing the Epic electronic medical record (EMR) system for both inpatient and outpatient services, the Network is a multi-year recipient of the\u00a0Most Wired<\/em>\u00a0award recognizing the breadth of the SLUHN\u2019s information technology applications such as telehealth, online scheduling and online pricing information. \u00a0The Network is also recognized as one of the state\u2019s lowest cost providers.<\/p>\n

Information provided to TVL by:
\nSam Kennedy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From top left to right:\u00a0Jessika Haynos, Fadel Balawi, Richard Anderson, Bill Moyer, Elizabeth Dierking, Nicole Nye, Israel Zighelboim.\u00a0From bottom left to right:\u00a0Allison Blackburn, Betsy Schmeltzle, Peter Sawin, Emelia Milano-Sawin, Kristin … Continue reading St. Luke\u2019s Allentown Campus Opens New Women & Babies Pavilion<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":127359,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[69,482],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-127357","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-in-the-valley","category-press-release-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Women-Babies-Pavilion.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127357"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=127357"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127357\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/127359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=127357"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=127357"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=127357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}