Lehigh Valley Hospital (LVH)–Carbon Is Expanding

Lehigh Valley Hospital (LVH)–Carbon is growing to bring additional diagnostic and treatment services where they are needed most, close to home. When completed later this year, the hospital will provide more diagnostic and treatment services, and is expected to bring up to 40 new jobs to the community.

The nearly $12 million project will deliver a new four-bed medical-surgical unit with an adjacent seven-bed critical care (CCU)/Step-Down Unit on the hospital’s second floor. A CCU is a hospital ward with specialized staff, equipment and standards to treat critically ill or injured patients. That will bring the hospital’s total inpatient bed complement to 31. All rooms at LVH–Carbon are private.

Additionally, LVH–Carbon is adding a pulmonary function testing (PFT) lab, an outpatient laboratory blood draw station and a new Cardiac Rehabilitation Center as well as relocating its nearby Breast Health Services to the hospital and health center campus on Blakeslee Boulevard in Lehighton. LVH–Carbon first began accepting patients in June 2022.

“These expanded services, coupled with the many physicians and clinical specialists who recently joined our team, further helps us care for more patients right here in Carbon County,” says Chris Biege, President, LVH–Carbon. “We have experienced inpatient and outpatient volumes much higher than we originally anticipated, making this expansion necessary and timely.”

The CCU will provide a higher level of care for patients and eliminate the need, in many cases, for them to be transferred to another hospital. A CCU offers care that is not typically available on a more traditional medical-surgical unit.

“Up until now, many of our local residents have had to leave the community for cardiac rehabilitation, Breast Health Services or even a CCU at one of our LVHN locations,” says Terry Purcell, President of LVHN Northwest, which includes LVH–Carbon. “Now, this care will be available locally. It’s about providing our residents with improved access to the highest quality of health care service in our region.”