News
COALDALE, PA – An ongoing expansion of the St. Luke’s Miners Campus Emergency Department will allow more patients to receive care and decrease patient wait times.
“Through these changes, we’re able to accommodate more patients and offer them a better experience,” explains Marshall Bowen, Emergency Department Manager. “We will be able to see more patients more quickly, and there will be more privacy. On the other side, the expansion and redesign improves our work flow.”
The expansion helps affirm St. Luke’s place as the region’s leader in providing easy access to healthcare services. The St. Luke’s Miners Campus Emergency Department treated approximately 18,000 patients last year, up more than 2,000 patients from the previous year. The Emergency Department is accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
The work on Phase 1 started in February and is scheduled to be completed on November 1. This part of the expansion includes three new patient rooms – bringing the total to 14, which are all private – another treatment room, and the construction of a Secured Mental Health Holding Area.
“The Mental Health Holding Area is for patients who are in mental distress and offers safer rooms in a location away from the main part of the unit,” Bowen says. “The two rooms in this area include a safe bathroom and shower, and patients are continuously monitored.”
Other renovations made during Phase 1 include an expanded and redesigned supply closet; a redesigned nurses’ station, and registration and waiting areas; and the installation of Medi+Sign electronic whiteboards in all patient rooms. The hospital also widened its rooms, installed softer lighting and updated its patient call-bell system.
“The challenge has been that we are renovating within a live, functioning emergency department,” Bowen says. “But the expansion has gone very smoothly, and we have been able to meet the needs of the community while addressing current and future growth.”
There is no timetable for the start of Phase 2 of the St. Luke’s Miners Campus Emergency Department expansion. However, 10 more beds will be added to the Emergency Department during this phase.
“All of this work is intended to make the St. Luke’s Miners Campus Emergency Department more patient friendly,” Bowen says. “We are building for our community. This is all part of our goal to provide the best service and experience possible.”
Media Contact:
Sam Kennedy, Corporate Communications Director, 484-526-4134, samuel.kennedy@sluhn.org
About St. Luke’s
Founded in 1872, St. Luke’s University Health Network is a fully integrated, regional, non-profit network providing services at seven hospitals and more than 270 outpatient sites. The network’s service area includes 10 counties: Lehigh, Northampton, Carbon, Schuylkill, Bucks, Montgomery, Berks and Monroe counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey. In partnership with Temple University, St. Luke’s created the region’s first and only regional medical school campus. Dedicated to advancing health education, St. Luke’s operates the nation’s oldest School of Nursing and 23 graduate medical educational programs and is considered a major teaching hospital – the only one in its region. Repeatedly, including 2017, St. Luke’s earned Truven’s 100 Top Major Teaching Hospital and 50 Top Cardiovascular Program designations, in addition to other honors for clinical excellence. St. Luke’s is a multi-year recipient of the Most Wired award recognizing the breadth of St. Luke’s information technology applications such as electronic medical records, telehealth, online scheduling and pricing information. St. Luke’s is also recognized as one of the state’s lowest cost providers.
