With the opening of the Children’s Cancer and Multipurpose Infusion Center at the Children’s Specialty Center, 1210 S. Cedar Crest Boulevard, on the campus of Lehigh Valley Hospital - Cedar Crest, the entire building is devoted to pediatric specialties, as part of Lehigh Valley Children’s Hospital.

The Children’s Cancer and Multipurpose Infusion Center child-friendly amenities in an attempt to put children and their families at ease in often difficult circumstances.

“This new Children’s Cancer and Multipurpose Infusion Center represents hope against a disease that occurs regularly and randomly, and spares no ethnic group, or no socioeconomic or geographic region,” said Brian Nester, DO, MBA, FACOEP, President and Chief Executive Officer of Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN).

“The good news is with major treatment advances in the past few decades, children with cancer are surviving longer than ever. And with research and clinical trial collaborations such as the LVHN Cancer Institute with Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, the news will continue to get better,” Nester said.

LVPG Pediatric Hematology Oncology: Muhlenberg, Bethlehem, which features providers Nathan Hagstrom, MD, MHCM, Lydia Boateng, MD, and Felipe Bautista Otanez, MD, has been relocated to the larger Children’s Cancer and Multipurpose Infusion Center space, which includes the following amenities:

Five Infusion Bays, Four Exam Rooms: Located in the main open area of the unit, each infusion bay has a TV set equipped with a gaming system.

Two Negative Pressure-Isolation Infusion Rooms: For children who can’t be exposed to an open environment with the rest of the infusion bays.

Procedure Room: Certain procedures such as lumbar punctures can be performed in the unit rather than in a hospital setting, which wasn’t possible in the Bethlehem facility.

Family Resource Room: A dedicated space for families with lockers to store items, educational materials and computers.

Teen Game Room: TV and gaming system room appropriate for older children. The room includes an infusion chair.

Tree of Life: A painted column and lighting installation created by the nonprofit Splashes of Hope.

Providers won’t only treat cancer patients at the center. They also will see children with hemophilia and gastrointestinal conditions requiring infusion services. In the future, they also will see rheumatology and Niemann-Pick type C clinical trial patients.

“By moving the center from our Muhlenberg campus to the Cedar Crest campus, we’re consolidating care,” said Hagstrom, Chair of Pediatrics at LVHN and Lehigh Valley Children’s Hospital.

“Now the cancer center is near surgeons, radiologists and imaging services, radiation oncologists, the inpatient unit and our children’s ER. Children and their families have easier access to all these things, and the people taking care of them have easier access to each other,” Hagstrom said.