Local families will have another option when it comes to keeping their kids healthy thanks to St. Luke’s University Health Network, which announced the opening of St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital based at its Bethlehem Campus in Fountain Hill Tuesday.
The announcement was made at a ribbon-cutting ceremony and reception that were held in a tent across from the hospital’s School of Nursing on Ostrum Street.
The focus on children is nothing new, SLUHN officials said, but will bring care to an even higher level.
“St. Luke’s is the first established hospital in the Lehigh Valley and has been caring for children for the 150 years since its founding in 1872,” St. Luke’s President & CEO Richard A. Anderson said in a news release about the opening. “This new children’s hospital designation recognizes the incredible depth of pediatric expertise developed across our Network over its long and storied history, including an array of specialty services added in recent years.”
In February 2020, St. Luke’s Bethlehem Campus added a $5 million, 8-bed Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU). St. Luke’s later became a member of the Children’s Hospital Association, and in May of last year St. Luke’s Pediatric Specialty Center opened on Lanark Road in Center Valley as the region’s first and only free-standing facility dedicated entirely to children. Toward the end of last year, St. Luke’s relocated and renovated its 17-bed pediatric inpatient unit, with the addition of support from pediatric trained respiratory therapists and others.
“You have been seeing this transformation happen a bit at a time,” said Dr. Jennifer Janco, who is Chair of Pediatrics at SLUHN, at Tuesday’s event.
The establishment of St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital will allow for medical care to be delivered closer to home, she explained, and for St. Luke’s to meet families “where (they) are.”
“It’s more than just one building,” Janco said. “It’s a collection of services spread throughout the community.”
Speaking at the ribbon-cutting Tuesday, Anderson said the development of St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital took approximately seven years. He also highlighted some of the historic milestones in children’s health care that have been achieved by St. Luke’s, from the dedication of its Children’s Pavilion on May 7, 1890 to the treatment of polio patients in the 1950s.
“Thank you for having faith in St. Luke’s,” Anderson said. “We will not let you down.”
For more information about St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital and St. Luke’s University Health Network, visit SLHN.org.
With help from some young friends, St. Luke’s University Health Network officials cut the ribbon to open St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital Tuesday. The hospital will be based at St. Luke’s Bethlehem Campus in Fountain Hill.
Carol Kuplen, RN, MSN, who is President of St. Luke’s University Hospital-Bethlehem and Chief Nursing Officer at St. Luke’s University Health Network, welcomed attendees to Tuesday’s ribbon-cutting ceremony.
St. Luke’s University Health Network President & CEO Richard A. Anderson provided context for the announcement of St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital’s opening amid the health network’s ongoing commemoration of its 150th anniversary. St. Luke’s doctors have cared for children since the hospital’s earliest days, Anderson said, and the commitment of its medical teams to caring for their youngest patients has never wavered.
Tuesday’s announcement was made at an outdoor ceremony held under a tent near the School of Nursing at St. Luke’s Bethlehem Campus in Fountain Hill.
Dr. Jennifer Janco, Chair of Pediatrics at St. Luke’s University Health Network, with her arms outstretched, celebrates the cutting of the ribbon to open St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital on Tuesday.
Hospital officials and kids celebrate the opening of St. Luke’s Children’s Hospital Tuesday. Officials said the hospital was years in the making, and the result of a transformative process that’s been happening “a bit at a time.”
