Outpatient growth moved the Lehigh Valley Health Network to rethink building a new hospital in the Hazleton, Pa., area, according to an article on the Standard Speaker website.
The system instead will modernize a present hospital — including expanding the emergency department and expand services at an ExpressCARE clinic.
“We made a little bit of a right turn,” John Fletcher, president of Lehigh Valley Hospital-Hazleton said in the article. “We were going to build a new hospital in the Hazleton community. Healthcare has changed so much, and it continues to change. We have seen a shift of patients we traditionally cared for in the hospital moving to an out-patient setting.”
One feature of the hospital modernization is creating more private rooms. The modernization will also include the establishment of a rapid assessment unit in the emergency department.
Grounding Healthcare Spaces in Hospitality Principles
UC Davis Health Selects Rudolph and Sletten for Central Utility Plant Expansion
Cape Cod Healthcare Opens Upper 2 Floors of Edwin Barbey Patient Care Pavilion
Building Sustainable Healthcare for an Aging Population
Froedtert ThedaCare Announces Opening of ThedaCare Medical Center-Oshkosh