To enhance their commitment to caring for children throughout the Lehigh Valley, officials at Children’s Hospital at Lehigh Valley Hospital (LVH) have introduced the J.B. and Kathleen Reilly Children’s Surgery Center.

The new center, which began caring for patients April 4, is on the third floor of the 1210 building on the LVH-Cedar Crest campus, Salisbury Township. The approximately 15,000-square-foot facility features pediatric surgeons who use minimally invasive, state-of-the-art technology for general pediatric surgeries, including surgical urology, ear nose and throat, plastic surgery and dental surgery among other procedures, all on an outpatient basis.

Because it’s located near the children’s ER, pediatrics unit and pediatric intensive care unit, the Children’s Surgery Center also will:

Provide a family-centered experience for children and parents;

Expand and improve existing services;

Further enhance the quality, safety and access of inpatient and outpatient children’s surgical services;

Create efficiency, and

Enhance all the care delivered at the only Children’s Hospital in the Lehigh Valley region.

The center is made possible in part because of the generosity of J.B. Reilly, founder and CEO of City Center Lehigh Valley, and his wife, Kathleen.

The Children’s Surgery Center is the latest addition to Children’s Hospital at LVH, which celebrates its fourth anniversary next month. The Children’s Hospital was the final goal in the “children’s care checklist” initially created by the late Forrest Moyer, MD, known as the father of Lehigh Valley pediatrics.

Moyer was chief of pediatrics at what was then called The Allentown Hospital (now LVH-17th Street) from 1953 to 1975. In the 1950s, he spearheaded a community effort to immunize the children of the Lehigh Valley against polio. In the 1970s, he created the first neonatal intensive care unit in the region, which at the time was housed at The Allentown Hospital.

“I know somewhere Dr. Moyer is smiling today, proud of our celebrating another special day for the children of our community,” said Brian Nester, DO, MBA, FACOEP, president and chief executive officer at Lehigh Valley Health Network.

Lehigh Valley Health Network includes five hospital campuses, three in Allentown including the region’s only facility dedicated to orthopedic surgery, one in Bethlehem and one in Hazleton; 14 health centers caring for communities in five counties; numerous primary and specialty care physician practices throughout the region; pharmacy, imaging, home health services and lab services; and preferred provider services through Valley Preferred.

Specialty care includes: trauma care at the region’s busiest, most-experienced trauma center treating adults and children, burn care at the regional Burn Center, kidney and pancreas transplants; perinatal-neonatal, cardiac, cancer care, and neurology and complex neurosurgery capabilities including national certification as a Comprehensive Stroke Center.

Children’s Hospital at Lehigh Valley Hospital, the only children’s hospital in the region, provides care in 28 specialties and general pediatrics.

Lehigh Valley Health Network has been recognized by US News & World Report for 20 consecutive years as one of America’s Best Hospitals and is a national Magnet hospital for excellence in nursing.

LVHN’s Cancer Institute is a member of the Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK) Cancer Alliance, a transformative initiative to improve the quality of care and outcomes for people with cancer in community health care settings, including access to key MSK clinical trials.

Information: lvhn.org