{"id":127647,"date":"2024-02-20T18:15:26","date_gmt":"2024-02-20T23:15:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=127647"},"modified":"2024-02-20T18:15:26","modified_gmt":"2024-02-20T23:15:26","slug":"only-health-network-in-lehigh-valley-to-win-prestigious-statewide-achievement-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/?p=127647","title":{"rendered":"Only Health Network in Lehigh Valley to Win Prestigious Statewide Achievement Award"},"content":{"rendered":"

Photo caption<\/em><\/strong>: St. Luke\u2019s Community Health Initiatives Coordinator Kelsey Gaspar serves a meal during the summer meals program in Allentown.<\/em><\/p>\n

St. Luke\u2019s University Health Network has received a prestigious Achievement Award from The Hospital and Healthsystem Association of Pennsylvania (HAP).<\/p>\n

The award, in the large division of the Community Champions category, honored St. Luke\u2019s for its project titled\u00a0Utilizing Strategic Partnerships and Sustainable Initiatives to Improve Food Access and Address Health Equity for Underserved Communities<\/em>.<\/p>\n

St. Luke\u2019s Department of Community Health addressed food access in various ways including hosting new food distribution programs such as on-site pantries, mobile food distribution, emergency food bags, boxes and meals. Additionally, the initiative provides referrals to existing food bank programs, food pantries and connections to SNAP, WIC and other food programs.<\/p>\n

Additional details on the project are available here:\u00a0https:\/\/www.haponline.org\/Portals\/1\/docs\/Achievement-Awards\/2024\/Community-Champions-SLUHN.pdf<\/a>.<\/p>\n

St. Luke\u2019s was one of 13 health systems and hospitals in Pennsylvania \u2013\u00a0and the only one in the Lehigh Valley<\/u>\u00a0\u2013 recognized by HAP through its 2024 Achievement Awards. Started in 1978, the program recognizes health systems and hospitals that are taking innovative approaches to strengthening the safety and quality of care, enhancing operations and patients\u2019 experience and partnering with their communities to address public health needs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are proud to be the only health care network in the Lehigh Valley to earn a HAP Achievement Award,\u201d said St. Luke\u2019s Community Health Vice President Rajika Reed, PhD., MPH, M.Ed. \u201cThis recognition reflects St. Luke\u2019s longstanding commitment to go above and beyond to consistently meet the needs of the communities we serve.\u201d<\/p>\n

St. Luke\u2019s competed against organizations of a similar size for the Community Champions award, which celebrates hospitals\u2019 and health systems\u2019 efforts to improve community health and access to care, advance health equity, and advocate for the health of our community and patients. In total, there were 93 entries for this year\u2019s Achievement Awards.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are proud to announce the winners of HAP\u2019s 2024 Achievement Awards, showcasing innovative, patient-centered projects that are making a difference in Pennsylvania,\u201d HAP President & CEO Nicole Stallings said. \u201cStrong health systems make strong communities and hospitals are central to our shared mission for a healthy Pennsylvania.\u201d<\/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

 <\/p>\n

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

Photo caption: St. Luke\u2019s Community Health Initiatives Coordinator Kelsey Gaspar serves a meal during the summer meals program in Allentown. St. Luke\u2019s University Health Network has received a prestigious Achievement … Continue reading Only Health Network in Lehigh Valley to Win Prestigious Statewide Achievement Award<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":127648,"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-127647","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\/sluhn-meal.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127647"}],"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=127647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/127647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/127648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=127647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=127647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thevalleyledger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=127647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}