Neighborhood Hospital to Open in Hellertown Next Year

Officials with Lehigh Valley Health Network, part of Jefferson Health, said Tuesday that they expect to open a new three-story, 90,000-square-foot health care center on Main Street in Hellertown by the middle of next year.

The facility will be located on the site of the former Champion spark plug factory, which is adjacent to the interchange at I-78.

According to LVHN, a “neighborhood hospital” with acute care facilities and a full-service emergency room that will be open 24 hours a day, year-round, will be located on the building’s first floor, with medical offices located on the two upper floors.

“This hospital, like its counterparts in Macungie, Gilbertsville and Tannersville (under construction), will feature 11 ER beds and 10 inpatient beds for those requiring overnight stays or additional monitoring and testing,” a news release said. “Anyone requiring more acute care can be stabilized and taken to a nearby larger LVHN hospital with increased capability.”

The news release noted that the first floor of the Hellertown facility will also house imaging and laboratory services. The two upper floors will house family medicine, a sleep center, adult and pediatric rehabilitation and a cardiac rehabilitation office.

“Our currently operating neighborhood hospitals in Macungie in Lehigh County and Gilbertsville in Montgomery County are filling a real need in those areas and the same will be true for Hellertown and this part of Northampton County,” said Holly Badali, President, Neighborhood Hospitals, LVHN.

“The neighborhood hospital model is serving our communities well,” added David Burmeister, DO, Associate Chief Physician Executive for Jefferson Health, President of Lehigh Valley Physician Group and Chair, Department of Emergency and Hospital Medicine. “It’s making critical and often-used medical services more convenient and accessible.”

The Champion site has been both a local landmark and–for some–an eyesore at the northern gateway to Hellertown and Saucon Valley since spark plug production there ceased nearly 50 years ago. In the 21st century, as a Superfund cleanup that began in the 1980s came to a conclusion, it has also been a location borough officials identified as prime for redevelopment.

LVHN officials noted in this week’s announcement that while the property was listed as a federal Environmental Protection Agency Superfund site because of contamination from manufacturing waste that was disposed of in an unlined lagoon, “under EPA supervision, a waterproof cover was completed over the lagoon in 1994, followed by the installation of groundwater monitoring and treatment systems.”

“The EPA decided in 2014 that no further action was needed on the site,” the news release said, “(and) hospital construction will not disturb the capped lagoon area.”

Drector of operations for Iron Hill Construction Management Mark Waddell said his company is experienced in transforming brownfield sites and “committed to…upholding the highest safety and environmental standards” at the Champion site.

LVHN is partnering with Peron Development and J.G. Petrucci Company to build the new health care center in Hellertown.