A new parking deck at St. Luke's Allentown Campus will offer patients, visitors and employees easy access to the hospital's services. Built on top of the former South parking lot and located behind the hospital between St. Cloud and Walnut streets, the deck adds 350 new spaces bringing the total number to 650 parking spaces.

"Our visitors now walk in and immediately locate the services they need," said Frank Ford, President, St. Luke's Allentown Campus. "Building the deck and reconfiguring the South lobby has made our hospital services more accessible than ever."

When St. Luke's acquired the former Allentown Osteopathic Medical Center in 1997, physicians admitted 4,064 patients, delivered 325 babies, performed 4,197 surgeries and treated more than 12,800 emergency room patients, according to Ford.

Since that time, St. Luke's has rebuilt the campus at an expense of more than $150 million; increased the number of hospital employees; invested in the community and improved the quality of health care services provided at the site.

In the last fiscal year, more than 9,400 patients were admitted, nearly 1,300 babies were delivered, in excess of 6,000 surgeries were performed and more than 46,000 emergency room patients were treated at the hospital, Ford continued. "That is exponential growth in a very short period of time," he said.

Prior to constructing the new parking garage, Ford said, St. Luke's Allentown Campus offered 437 dedicated parking spaces serving its 750 employees and more than 120,000 annual patients and visitors.

"The new parking deck will address current needs and allow St. Luke's to expand services, increase patient volumes, add patient beds and create jobs," Ford said.

The $9.5-million project, paid for in part by funding from the Commonwealth's Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program (RACP), also features a redesigned South entrance and main lobby for easy patient and visitor access. Lehigh County was instrumental by serving as the administrator of the RACP grant, acknowledged Ford.

Tom Muller, Lehigh County's Director of Administration, said, "The county is delighted to have been able to facilitate funding for this project which reinforces St. Luke's clear commitment to providing first class medical support to those living in the important urban core."

The parking deck was built to ascetically complement the existing hospital and neighborhood, indicated Ford. The structure provides immediate access to the hospital via the South entrance, which now serves as the primary drop-off location for patients. The new lobby contains the hospital's gift shop and HomeStar Pharmacy, as well as a new information /outpatient testing registration area.

Construction on the project began in May 2012 and was completed early last month.

According to Dan Puchyr, President & CEO of Bracy Contracting, the parking deck is made of 6,000 tons (12 million pounds) of concrete. More than 215 construction workers worked on the project during the 11 months of the construction period and were employed by 16 regional contractors and suppliers.

St. Luke's Allentown Campus is one of six hospitals within the St. Luke's University Health Network system, providing services at more than 150 sites.

The Network includes more than 80 employed physician practice sites and 400 employed physicians, various outpatient testing and service facilities, home health, hospice services, the largest hospital-based EMS unit in Pennsylvania and other related health care organizations.