One hundred fifty years ago, a star was born: St. Luke’s Hospital.

St. Luke’s has been a cornerstone of the Lehigh Valley ever since. The Lehigh Valley’s oldest hospital was founded in the spring of 1872 to provide industrial workers, many of them from Bethlehem Steel, with local access to healthcare, eliminating the long journey to New York or Philadelphia for critical treatment. A century and a half later, St. Luke’s continues to honor its commitment to local business and the community, as the Network’s iconic star shines as bright as ever.

St. Luke’s University Health Network is the Lehigh Valley’s biggest healthcare system, and it is the one that wins the most awards for quality, service and affordability. A fully integrated, regional, non-profit system of more than 17,000 employees, it provides services at 14 campuses that comprise the biggest network of trauma centers in Pennsylvania.

With more than 300 outpatient sites and annual net revenue of $3 billion, the Network’s service area includes 11 counties: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey.

Dedicated to advancing medical education, St. Luke’s is the preeminent teaching hospital in central-eastern Pennsylvania. In partnership with Temple University, the Network established the Lehigh Valley’s first and only four-year medical school campus.

The Network also operates the nation’s longest continuously operating School of Nursing, established in 1884, and 40 fully-accredited graduate medical educational programs with 419 residents and fellows. In 2022, St. Luke’s, a member of the Children’s Hospital Association, opened the Lehigh Valley’s first and only free-standing facility dedicated entirely to children.

St. Luke’s is the only Lehigh Valley-based healthcare system to earn Medicare’s five-star ratings (the highest) for quality, efficiency and patient satisfaction. It is a Leapfrog Group and Healthgrades Top Hospital and a Newsweek World’s Best Hospital.

U.S. News & World Report ranked St. Luke’s No. 1 in the Lehigh Valley and No. 6 in Pennsylvania. Three of IBM Watson Health’s 100 Top Hospitals are St. Luke’s hospitals. The Network’s flagship University Hospital has earned the 100 Top Major Teaching Hospital designation from IBM Watson Health nine times and seven years in a row, including in 2021 when it was identified as the No 1 Teaching Hospital in the U.S. In 2021, IBM Watson Health also named St. Luke’s among the 15 Top Health Systems nationally.

Utilizing the Epic electronic medical record (EMR) system for inpatient and outpatient services, the Network is a multi-year recipient of the Most Wired award recognizing the breadth of the SLUHN’s information technology applications such as telehealth, online scheduling and online pricing information. St. Luke’s is also recognized as one of the state’s lowest-cost providers.

St. Luke’s year-long celebration began in May with employee events at St. Luke’s campuses and the St. Luke’s 150th Anniversary Celebration at Coca-Cola Park on May 13.

A 150th anniversary “Health Now” episode aired on WFMZ Channel 69 on May 30.

To mark the anniversary, St. Luke’s will award $150,000 in special grants to partner schools and nonprofits working to make a positive impact in the community.