Neighborhood hospital opening along Route 100 in Macungie
A new hospital opened March 12 along Route 100 in Macungie. It’s a new concept in the Lehigh Valley - Lehigh Valley Health Network’s first neighborhood hospital.
It’s a lot smaller than it closest parent, Lehigh Valley Hospital - Cedar Crest, along Cedar Crest Boulevard in Salisbury Township. But it promises to be just as capable at treating emergency and sick patients 24/7, 365 days a year in the greater Macungie area.
Community leaders and LVHN officials participated March 8 in a ceremonial ribbon-cutting ceremony at the hospital site at 3369 State Route 100, in Macungie. Dr. Brian A. Nester, president and CEO of LVHN said the new facility “will provide more accessible health care in the region, including an around-the-clock emergency room.”
The hospital opened to patients March 12, when final state Department of Health inspections were completed.
The opening completes the new Macungie medical care campus where the Health Center at Macungie, featuring medical offices, opened in December 2023.
“The new hospital and health center fill a need by creating a medical campus and health care services not currently available in the Macungie area,” Nester said.
Lehigh Valley Hospital - Macungie is the first of several neighborhood hospitals LVHN is seeking to build in the area. “It’s a stand-alone, licensed, accredited acute care hospital, with a full-service ER,” Nester said.
The ER has 11 beds and features a 10-bed inpatient medical unit and ambulatory diagnostic services. The inpatient beds are for those requiring overnight hospital stays, or for additional care, observation and testing.
Patients arriving at LVH - Macungie with more acute problems, or requiring surgery, would be stabilized and transported to a larger LVHN hospital with increased care capability. Pediatric patents requiring inpatient care will be routinely transferred to Lehigh Valley Reilly Children’s Hospital at the LVHN – Cedar Crest campus.
Additional in-house hospital services include lab and imaging services, including X-ray, ultrasound, CT scans and MRI scans are also available on an outpatient basis.
A second LVHN neighborhood hospital and health center is under construction in Gilbertsville, Montgomery County and is projected to open later this year.