When the new St. Luke’s Carbon Campus hospital opens in late fall 2021, it will be the centerpiece of the health system’s technologically advanced, multipurpose, rural medical and wellness complex in Lehighton, Pa. It will redefine healthcare access, convenience and quality for the local population and surrounding areas. This innovative model, though serving a smaller rural population, will have some of the latest technology not even found in major metropolitan hospitals, making it a rural model of healthcare excellence.
This beautiful, 108-acre hospital and wellness complex will give the community easy access to Level IV trauma emergency care, acute, critical and chronic medical care provided by medical experts who are dedicated to serving the people in the Carbon region, many who had to travel far outside the area for advanced treatment in the past. The wellness resources on the new campus will offer safe, tranquil and convenient opportunities for improving one’s health through fitness, health education and nutrition.
The new three-story, 80-patient-room, 160,000 square-feet hospital will be the largest of its kind in the history of Carbon County and the first new hospital built in the county in 65 years. With an emphasis on innovation, safety, comfort and convenience, the facility’s environment and providers’ expertise will combine to create a memorable experience for patients and visitors.
All patient rooms will be private and each outfitted with a wall-mounted, 55-inch smart TV to facilitate two-way audio/visual communication between patients and their providers anywhere, as well as patients and their family members worldwide. This beta-site installation–one of the first in the nation by AmHealth—will expand telemedicine capabilities and virtual visitation convenience.
Another high-tech partnership with the company, MediSigns, will replace the typical write-and-wipe white boards in patient rooms with real-time computer system-linked digital whiteboards that will display that names of caregivers, day of the week, scheduled activities and other useful safety information.
During COVID, St. Luke’s forged a pivotal partnership with local Life-Aire air purification system company. Lifeaire’s first-of-its-kind technology kills all air pathogens in a clinical environment, including COVID-19 and anthrax. Six LifeAire air purifiers will be installed in the air ducts throughout the new Carbon hospital, making it one of the few hospitals in the nation with this novel technology.
A home-grown concept for St. Luke’s, the TechConnect help center in the lobby will be staffed by a technically astute attendant who will give free assistance to patients, visitors and community members struggling to learn or use personal digital or medical symptom-monitoring devices or apps.
Within a year of opening the main campus, a three-story, 50,000-square-foot medical office building will also be built connected to the hospital. Cancer, cardiac, orthopedics care, pain management and physical therapy services and physicians’ offices will occupy this facility, along with a full fitness center and more.
A fitness-walking trail that encircles the complex will offer staff, patients and visitors the opportunity to exercise in a bucolic setting bordered by picturesque mountains and an organic farm, or to seek solace in a lavender and sunflower meditation and healing garden.
“This complex underscores St. Luke’s commitment to the health and wellbeing of this community,” says John Nespoli, president of St. Luke’s Lehighton and Carbon campuses. “At St. Luke’s we believe in providing quality services that keep people physically, emotionally and spiritually healthy and help take care of them when they are ill or injured, to ultimately enhance the health status of our neighbors.”
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