Lehigh Valley Health Network

Network gets ‘Top 10’ rating

Lehigh Valley Hospital is one of the top hospitals in the country for orthopedic and pulmonary and critical care, according to the 2024-25 U.S. News & World Report Best Hospitals list.

U.S. News ranks LVH among the top 20 hospitals in the nation for orthopedics and 40th for pulmonology and lung surgery.

U.S. News evaluated nearly 5,000 hospitals across 15 specialties and 20 procedures and conditions. Only 11 percent of evaluated hospitals earned a Best Hospitals ranking. Hospitals awarded a “best” designation excelled at factors such as clinical outcomes, level of nursing and patient experience.

St. Luke’s Health Network

Among best employers for new grads

St. Luke’s University Health Network has been recognized as one of the nation’s Best Employers for New Grads, Forbes magazine announced recently.

The Best Employers for New Grads have been identified in an independent survey from a sample of over 100,000 young U.S. professionals with less than 10 years of work experience. Respondents included employees working for companies with at least 1,000 people.

St. Luke’s was the only local employer named to Forbes’ list of Best Employers for New Grads.

Patel joins gastroenterology dept.

St. Luke’s University Health Network proudly welcomes Vaishali Patel, MD, a highly regarded advanced endoscopist, to its Gastroenterology Department. Dr. Patel began her role Aug. 5, becoming St. Luke’s first female advanced endoscopist and bringing her vast expertise to the Allentown Campus.

Dr. Patel’s arrival signifies a pivotal advancement for St. Luke’s as she expands access to specialized endoscopic procedures to additional St. Luke’s locations. This development not only reduces the need for patients to travel, but also enhances the network’s competitive advantage in providing gastrointestinal care.

State’s #1 ranked health care employer

Forbes partnered with market research firm Statista to survey 160,000 employees working for companies with at least 500 people within the United States.

Forbes’ best-in-state recognition is one of numerous employer-related achievements St. Luke’s has earned recently. In May, the magazine recognized St. Luke’s as one of the nation’s Best Employers for New Grads.

In a separate survey conducted in partnership with The Morning Call, USA Today and other media outlets earlier this year, St. Luke’s was named a Top Workplaces 2024 nationally, in Pennsylvania and in New Jersey. St. Luke’s was the ONLY health care institution ranked in Pennsylvania and the third-highest ranked health care entity in the nation to be designated a Top Workplaces in 2024.

Graduation ceremony held

The 32nd Annual Graduation Ceremony was held June 14 at the ArtsQuest Center at SteelStacks in Bethlehem. More than 60 physicians will remain with St. Luke’s — an enormous benefit to the greater Lehigh Valley as approximately 40% of St. Luke’s physician vacancies are filled by resident and fellow graduates each year.

Whole blood stocked on ambulances

St. Luke’s Emergency and Transport Service (SLETS) is now able to carry whole blood on its specialized critical care transport (CCT) ambulances.

Whole blood is valued by EMS teams because all of its components — red blood cells, white blood cells, platelets and plasma — are present. The first and most common use is for patients involved in traumatic-related incidents causing massive blood loss.

The CCT ambulances primarily transport patients between St. Luke’s University Health Network hospitals.

Tiny device aid heart program

St. Luke’s University Health Network’s interventional cardiology team recently debuted the Abbott PressureWire X, the tiniest device ever made for measuring the health and function of the mini-arteries that supply blood flow to the heart muscle. St. Luke’s is the first and only heart program using this innovative tool.

The Abbot PressureWire X, which is about the thickness of a human hair, is inserted by a cardiologist into a symptomatic, but unblocked coronary artery, and advanced to the far reaches of the vessel to seek defects in the walls and inner lining of the tiny blood vessel that lies downstream of a larger coronary artery.

According to Kimberly Wilson, DO, interventional cardiologist, “This new device increases our options for diagnosing and treating the network of tiny coronary arteries, which supply about 90% of blood to the heart muscle.”