St. Luke’s Health Network

Sites among safest hospitals nationwide

St. Luke’s University Hospital’s Patient Safety Indicator score establishes St. Luke’s as the safest hospital in the Lehigh Valley and places it among the safest hospitals nationwide.

The Patient Safety Indicator (PSI 90), from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, summarizes patient safety across multiple indicators, monitors performance over time and facilitates comparative reporting at the hospital level. St. Luke’s score of .58 is significantly better than the national average, placing it in the #1 cohort of hospitals nationwide, according to the Association of American Medical Colleges.

“Here’s the simple takeaway: If you want to receive the safest care when you go to the hospital, come to St. Luke’s,” St. Luke’s Chief Quality Officer Donna Sabol said. “This objective measurement reflects the fact that safety is baked into St. Luke’s culture. St. Luke’s achieves superior quality and safety results because of the commitment to excellence of our outstanding medical staff and employees.”

For more information about the PSI 90 metric or to compare which hospitals are the safest, go to the CMS Hospital Compare website.

Named to Top 100 Hospitals list

St. Luke’s University Health Network has been named to Premier’s 2024 PINC AI 100 Top Hospitals list published by Fortune magazine.

This is the 11th time in a row and the 13th time overall that St. Luke’s hospitals have been recognized among the 100 Top Hospitals in the United States. St. Luke’s is the only health network in the greater Lehigh Valley region to ever earn this distinction.

In Pennsylvania, only five hospitals earned a place on the 100 Top Hospitals list. Three of the five are St. Luke’s campuses:

• St. Luke’s Anderson Campus was recognized for the seventh time among the 20 Best Teaching Hospitals.

• St. Luke’s Upper Bucks Campus was named for the first time in the Small Community Hospital category.

• St. Luke’s Warren Campus was named to the list for the first time in the Small Community Hospital category. The only other New Jersey hospital to make the list was in the Large Community Hospitals category.

For more information, visit pinc-ai.com/100-top-hospitals/winners/

Less invasive cardiac testing offered

St. Luke’s University Health Network now offers a proven, noninvasive diagnostic option for people with suspected heart disease: Heartflow FFR-CT Analysis. This test may reduce the need for invasive cardiac testing and is offered at hospitals throughout the Network.

Here’s how it works: Computed tomography (a CT scan) is combined with fractional flow reserve. This measures the ratio of blood flow in a potentially diseased and narrowed coronary artery to blood flow in the same artery when not constricted. Trained analysts using AI algorithms then create an anatomical model of a person’s heart that helps physicians visualize the blood flow and detect stenosis, or plaque, that obstructs the blood flow.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death for adults in the United States, and coronary artery disease (CAD) is the most common type of heart disease, affecting nearly half the adult population. CAD develops when the arteries leading to the heart narrow or become blocked, which may lead to a reduction in blood flow to the heart. This can cause chest pain, heart attacks and death. Identifying exactly where and how an artery is blocked or clogged can help improve a person’s treatment plan – including whether or not an intervention is needed.

The Heartflow FFR-CT Analysis offers the highest diagnostic accuracy available from a noninvasive test. Additionally, in clinical trials, using the Heartflow FFR-CT Analysis helped identify which patients do and do not need invasive treatment. The use of the Heartflow FFR-CT Analysis also reduced the cost of care by 26 percent compared to usual care.

Procedure reduces need for amputation

St. Luke’s physicians are offering a new minimally invasive procedure called chronic limb-threatening ischemia (CLTI) that offers hope to persons facing likely amputation of a lower extremity due to a permanently blocked artery.

St. Luke’s vascular surgeon Jared Feyko, DO, became the first physician in the region to treat a patient with the LimFlow minimally invasive system to improve the blood supply to a patient’s lower extremity. Since undergoing this procedure, the patient has less pain in his lower leg and foot, their chronically infected foot/leg wounds are healing and, most importantly, they have been able to avoid total amputation of the once-in-jeopardy limb.

Mother’s Milk Bank depot

The St. Luke’s Baby & Me Support Center in Bethlehem is proud to announce it is now a depot and dispensary for the Mid-Atlantic Mother’s Milk Bank.

The Mid-Atlantic Mother’s Milk Bank provides safe, ethically sourced donor milk for inpatient and outpatient babies with medical needs. By partnering with the Mid-Atlantic Mother’s Milk Bank, the St. Luke’s Baby & Me Support Center can accept and dispense donor milk to Lehigh Valley families.

Human milk benefits all babies but can be especially critical for medically vulnerable infants. When a mother’s milk isn’t available, pasteurized milk from donors who undergo thorough screening is the next-best option.

The St. Luke’s Baby & Me Support Center provides mothers, fathers, support persons and family members with services they need before, during and after pregnancy. It has locations in Bethlehem, Center Valley and Palmerton.

For more information on the St. Luke’s Baby & Me Support Center’s services, visit www.slhn.org/pediatrics/services/baby-and-me-support-center. The phone number is 484-526-2229.

AI technology used to detect heart conditions

SLUHN heart specialists are first in the Lehigh Valley region employing advanced artificial intelligence technology, combined with echocardiograms, to detect and monitor potentially serious heart conditions, like aortic stenosis, before symptoms appear in patients.

The Network’s Heart and Vascular Center has begun using the Egnite CardioCare AI digital health platform, which functions with the hospital’s electronic health record (EHR) and echocardiogram images to aid in the diagnosis of various heart issues in the early stages of development. Echocardiography converts sound waves into images of the heart’s structure, size and function, including its valves and blood flow, to diagnose and monitor the health of the heart or presence of a cardiac disorder or disease.

Stephen Olenchok, DO, St. Luke’s Chief of Cardiovascular Surgery, said, “As the region’s leader in heart care innovation, St. Luke’s Heart and Vascular Center is pioneering the adoption of the Egnite CardioCare AI platform to expand our clinical toolbox to improve our ability to diagnose, manage and treat a range of developing cardiac disorders in their early stages, with the ultimate goal of improving patients’ quality of life and long-term cardiac health.”