Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN), part of Jefferson Health, raised one of the final steel beams April 28 on a new neighborhood hospital and medical office building in Hellertown, Northampton County.

The project is a three-story, 90,000-square-foot building, with the hospital occupying the first floor and medical offices on the two upper floors.

LVHN is partnering with Peron Development and J.G. Petrucci Company to build the facility.

Neighborhood hospitals are licensed and accredited acute-care facilities, with a full-service emergency room. They are open 24 hours a day, year-round.

The hospital, off of I-78 in Hellertown, as with LVHN counterparts in Macungie, Gilbertsville and Tannersville, the latter under construction, will have 11 ER beds and 10 inpatient beds for those requiring overnight stays or additional monitoring and testing.

Anyone requiring more acute care can be stabilized and taken to a nearby larger LVHN hospital with increased capability.

Nearly 90 percent of hospital ER patients are treated and released the same day, making neighborhood hospitals a great fit and a way to reduce ER pressure on larger LVHN hospitals.

The first floor of the Hellertown facility will feature the hospital, imaging, durable medical equipment and HNL Lab Medicine.

The upper floors will include family medicine, adult and pediatric rehabilitation, cardiac rehabilitation, and a first-of-its-kind comprehensive sleep center.

“Raising this beam today brings us closer to opening our doors and providing leading edge care to the Hellertown community,” said Holly Badali, Chief Operating Officer, Neighborhood Hospitals, LVHN, on April 28.

“We’re looking forward to serving the people of this community and growing their access to the health care they deserve,” Badali said.

LVHN’s last hospital opening in Northampton County was LVH - Hecktown Oaks, Lower Nazareth Township, July 2021. Located near Route 33, LVH - Hecktown Oaks is a larger hospital and was the first new hospital built by LVHN in 50 years. It was built in response to demand for LVHN care in the county.

“Our neighborhood hospitals in Macungie and Gilbertsville are filling a need in their respective communities, and this new facility in Hellertown will do the same,” said Jim Miller, Regional President, Jefferson Health - Lehigh East Region. “We’re looking forward to furthering our commitment to making health care more convenient to the communities we serve with this new neighborhood hospital.”

“As someone with family in this area, I’m thrilled for this community to have a neighborhood hospital in Hellertown to provide quick, accessible health care,” said Eric Bean, DO, LVHN. “You shouldn’t have to go far to get caring, compassionate care and great expertise. We’re bringing that close to home for this community.”

Lehigh Valley Health Network is part of Jefferson Health.

Jefferson is principally located in the Greater Philadelphia region, Lehigh Valley and northeastern Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey.

Jefferson is more than 65,000-people-strong, dedicated to providing the highest-quality, compassionate clinical care for patients; making communities healthier and stronger; preparing tomorrow’s professional leaders for 21st-century careers, and creating new knowledge through basic-programmatic, clinical and applied research.

Thomas Jefferson University, home of Sidney Kimmel Medical College, Jefferson College of Nursing, and the Kanbar College of Design, Engineering and Commerce, dates to 1824 and comprises 10 colleges and three schools, offering 200-plus undergraduate and graduate programs to more than 8,300 students.

Jefferson Health, nationally-ranked as one of the Top 15 not-for-profit health care systems in the United States and the largest provider in the Philadelphia and Lehigh Valley areas, serves patients at 32 hospitals and more than 700 outpatient and urgent-care locations.

Jefferson Health Plans is a not-for-profit managed health-care organization providing a broad range of health coverage in Pennsylvania and New Jersey for more than 35 years.