St. Luke's University Health Network's Anderson Campus in Bethlehem Township is growing by leaps and bounds in order to keep up with demand. The week of July 22 saw 32 additional beds come online via a total fit-out of the hospital's empty fourth floor space, bringing the bed count to 108, and the completion of renovations to the original emergency department which takes its capacity to 32 bays.

St. Luke's Anderson Campus President Ed Nawrocki said that the $5 million expansion, which included $1 million in technology improvements, will allow the hospital to continue to meet growing demand from the immediate area as well as the Route 33 corridor and western New Jersey regions. About 80 additional staff will be employed as a result of the expansion, which has seen staff increase from an initial 250 employees to the 550 currently working at the Anderson Campus.

The new fourth floor represents the third medical-surgical unit at the Anderson Campus, which opened in November 2011. Nawrocki said that it would increase capacity by 50 percent immediately.

The new floor will focus on oncologic patients, including those undergoing the innovative Intraoperative Radiation Therapy (IORT), which is used on women who are dealing with breast cancer. St. Luke's Anderson Campus is one of fewer than 50 hospitals nationwide offering this technology which provides radiation treatments during cancer surgery.

Completion of the emergency department improvements increases capacity to 60,000 visits annually. Mark Lohman, patient care manager in the emergency department, said that visits to the ER were 300 percent over projections within the first year, which necessitated increasing rooms from the original 15 to the current 32. In addition, new diagnostic x-ray and CAT scan suites with a central control room are being finished up and will be in service soon.

"We're laser focused on giving quality care," said Lohman.