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If you’ve driven past Lehigh Valley Hospital–Cedar Crest in the last year, you’ve probably seen construction and wanted to peek inside. Here’s your chance.
The completed facility will comprise almost 160,000 square feet – it’s the largest and most advanced of its kind in Pennsylvania. The emergency room (ER) increases the number of private adult rooms from 42 to 97, and private children’s rooms from 12 to 27.
If you think the building looks too big to be just an ER, you’re right. “This is more than an ER – the emergency room is just one component,” says David Burmeister, DO, Chair, Department of Emergency and Hospital Medicine, Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN), with LVPG Emergency Medicine. “We’re really building a comprehensive acute care complex that’s like nothing I’m aware of anywhere else in the country.”
Flexible, modular design
The flow of people coming to the ER ebbs and flows. With this in mind, the building has been built with a modular design. A new three-bay trauma center lies at the center. A 59-bed observation unit for patients who need additional care but not an inpatient hospital stay is also close by. “Having a directly adjacent observation unit in the same building is something we’ve wanted for 20 years,” Burmeister says.
Many beds can be used flexibly for either ER or observation purposes. “If we get 20 or 30 ER patients at once – and that has happened – we can draw on adjacent observation flex beds,” Burmeister says. “Likewise, some of the ER can be used for observation.” Multiple 12-bed modules can easily be opened or closed as needs fluctuate.
The emergency room includes radiology with MRI, CT scan and X-ray capabilities; two helipads for air transport; physical therapy facilities; a laboratory; a trauma center with its own operating room; and an area for psychiatric and behavioral health care.
“Putting this facility together required collaboration across specialties like I’ve never seen before, which speaks to how LVHN can coordinate care for our community,” Burmeister says.
“LVHN already provides optimal care for the sickest patients in the Lehigh Valley, and this project takes us to another level,” Burmeister says. “It’s one of multiple ways that LVHN on the whole – and our leadership deserves an incredible amount of credit for this – has shown the dedication we have to this community.”
To learn more about the new ER at Lehigh Valley Hospital–Cedar Crest, visit LVHN.org/more.