LVHN Plans Gilbertsville Hospital to Boost Access to Quality Care

Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN) has started construction on a new hospital in Gilbertsville, Montgomery County to help meet increasing demand for accessible, convenient ER and inpatient care.

Lehigh Valley Hospital (LVH)–Gilbertsville, LVHN’s first in Montgomery County, is expected to open by fall 2024. A medical office building on the same site – the Health Center at Gilbertsville – is slated to open at the same time.

Construction is underway on land at Route 100 and Grosser Road, near the current Wawa convenience store and gas station. 

The new hospital is a type of facility known in the health care industry as a neighborhood hospital, with a full-service ER and limited number of inpatient beds. The footprint, at about 22,000 square feet, is smaller than other LVHN hospitals in the region such as LVH–Cedar Crest near Allentown or LVH–Muhlenberg in Bethlehem.

However, this will be a fully licensed hospital offering accredited acute care – 24 hours a day, seven days a week – in a state-of-the-art facility. Patients requiring surgery or higher levels of care will be stabilized and transferred to other, higher-equipped LVHN hospitals as needed.

The new hospital will have extensive lab, imaging and pharmacy services. All of the lab and imaging services, including X-ray, ultrasound, CT scan and MRI, will also be available for any patient requiring these services as an outpatient.

The Health Center at Gilbertsville, at about 57,000 square feet, will house a variety of medical services, including Lehigh Valley Physician Group (LVPG) primary care and pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, orthopedics, rheumatology, physiatry, cardiology, cardiac and nuclear testing, breast health services, adult and pediatric rehabilitation and cardiac rehabilitation. HNL Lab Medicine also will be on-site.

“LVH–Gilbertsville and the Health Center at Gilbertsville will give residents more convenient access to emergency and hospital-level care, along with robust ambulatory services located closer to where they live, work and play,” said Brian A. Nester, DO, MBA, President and Chief Executive Officer, LVHN. “Easy access can improve patient engagement and help individuals live their healthiest life.”

The hospital and health center are LVHN’s second and third facilities in Montgomery County. The Health Center at Pennsburg opened in March 2022. Construction continues for LVHN’s first neighborhood hospital in Macungie, Lehigh County. The health network broke ground for that project in December. Lehigh Valley Hospital–Macungie is slated to open by July 2024. The companion medical office building, the Health Center at Macungie, could open as early as this winter.

“We’re proud to expand the services we offer in this region and connect patients with world-class care that includes the expertise of our five health institutes as well as Lehigh Valley Reilly Children’s Hospital,” Dr. Nester said.

David Burmeister, DO, Chair, Department of Emergency and Hospital Medicine, LVHN, said the neighborhood hospital model will deliver short ER wait times and favorable door-to-discharge times. “Patients will receive the same high-quality, compassionate care and exceptional patient experience that have made LVHN the gold standard in the region,” he said.