Hanover Hill Behavioral Health is expected to open in fall 2025.

Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN) and Universal Health Services held a ceremonial groundbreaking to commemorate the beginning of construction of the new three-story, 144-bed behavioral health hospital. The new joint-venture facility will be along Macada Road, Hanover Township, across from the Lehigh Valley Hospital (LVH) - Muhlenberg campus.

Hanover Hill Behavioral Health will create more than 300 full-time jobs, including nurses, clinicians, therapists, technicians and administrative staff.

“Providing convenient access to high-quality, compassionate, behavioral health care has never been more paramount in our community,” said Brian A. Nester, DO, MBA, President and Chief Executive Officer, LVHN, at the May 15 dedication. “Hanover Hill Behavioral Health will centralize behavioral health resources in the community and triple LVHN’s current behavioral health bed capacity in the Lehigh Valley.

“By combining our decades-long commitment to addressing behavioral health and our local expertise with UHS’s vast experience, we’ll be able to harmonize diverse programming and offerings for our patients,” Nester said.

“Through this expansion, we will reach more people suffering with mental and behavioral health issues and provide comfort and relief to their family, friends, and loved ones who are also impacted,” said Nester.

“This is an exciting milestone for our organizations and the community that trusts us day in and day out,” Nester said.

“We are excited to partner with LVHN on the construction of Hanover Hill Behavioral Health that will incorporate the latest innovative evidence-based care elements for maximum patient safety and clinical outcomes,” said Matt Peterson, President, Behavioral Health Division, UHS.

“LVHN is an outstanding provider of critically needed services in the Lehigh Valley and surrounding region. Our missions are aligned, and we share a commitment to expand access to compassionate care and treatment for all populations in the region,” Peterson said.

“Those of us in behavioral health have long known that quality behavioral health care is crucial to a person’s overall well-being. We’ve also long realized that getting such care has been a challenge as the nation navigates a shortage of mental health resources,” said Edward Norris, MD, MBA, Chair, Department of Psychiatry, LVHN.

“That became more apparent to the outside community especially during and after the pandemic, and we anticipate the needs will only continue to grow. That is why LVHN is investing in infrastructure and comprehensive behavioral health care for our community,” Norris said.

Nester said LVHN provides inpatient and outpatient behavioral health services, including extensive tele-psychiatry programs. Demand for services has increased rapidly in recent years, and the pandemic has exacerbated the need for inpatient psychiatric capacity for all populations in the region.

“We know that with LVHN, we have a partner equally committed to our mission of behavioral health wellness. Together, we will enable more care for more patients, a core goal we continue to deliver upon with growth nationally as well as right here in Pennsylvania,” said Shelah Adams, Associate Vice President, Corporate Development, UHS.

“In developing the partnership, UHS and LVHN went through an extensive market needs evaluation to determine how to best integrate existing LVHN resources and overall community capabilities with the expertise of UHS, to provide an integrated behavioral health solution that meets LVHN’s regional health care delivery needs,” said Vic Radina, Senior Vice President, Corporate Development, UHS.

UHS is one of the United States’ largest and most respected providers of health care and has more than 400 facilities globally. UHS behavioral health facilities in Pennsylvania (Brooke Glen Behavioral Hospital, Clarion Psychiatric Center, Fairmount Behavioral Health System, Foundations Behavioral Health, Friends Hospital, Horsham Clinic, KeyStone Center, Roxbury Treatment Center, The Meadows Psychiatric Center, and Lancaster Behavioral Health Hospital, a joint venture with Penn Medicine) provide compassionate mental health care services delivered by staff dedicated to helping patients transform their lives for the better.

LVHN selected UHS as its partner because of its long-standing commitment to patient- and family-centered care, strong clinical outcomes and proven track record of partnering with community-based entities.

Information: hanoverhillbh.com.