The St. Luke’s Anderson Campus will be doubling its size with its newest expansion set to open in January 2020.

This expansion will be a Women & Babies Pavilion housing a labor and delivery unit, 32-room postpartum unit with 16-bassinet nurseries, private and semi-private NICU rooms and more, as stated by St. Luke’s.

June 12 was the official groundbreaking ceremony with four speakers and seven St. Luke’s Hospital personnel taking part in the actual groundbreaking.

Guest speakers included St. Luke’s Anderson Campus President Edward Nawrocki; surgical resident of St. Luke’s University Health Network Julia Tolentine, M.D.; Program Director of the OB/GYN residency Elizabeth Dierking, M.D. and President and Chief Executive Officer of the St. Luke’s University Health Network Richard A. Anderson.

The project will increase access and bring personalized, high-quality health care to women and newborns in the local area.

“The project represents a major investment in the health and well-being of our community,” Nawrocki said.

Additional benefits to the campus expansion include increased jobs and an expanding graduate education program.

The months of construction will allow for new contractor positions, and the building design, constructed using American manufactured steel, shows the network’s dedication to economic stimulus at home.

After the project is completed, 200 new permanent jobs will be filled at the facility, adding to the current 14,000 employed by St. Luke’s, bringing more jobs to Bethlehem and the Lehigh Valley as a whole.

For the sixth time and fourth year in a row, St. Luke’s has been a designated IBM Watson Health 100 Top Hospital in the major teaching hospital category.

The Women & Babies Pavilion will act as an expansion to its graduate medical education program which plans to add 160 residents over a five-year period which will almost double the total number of residents and fellows trained with St. Luke’s currently.