Lehigh Valley Health Network, Allentown, Pa. 

ORGANIZATION DETAILS: For 21 consecutive years, Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN) has ranked as one of U.S. News & World Report’s top hospitals, this past year recognized in the top 3 percent for cardiology and heart surgery, gastroenterology and GI surgery, geriatrics, orthopedics, and pulmonology. The network includes eight Pennsylvania hospital campuses, 22 health centers in five counties, and more than 150 primary and specialty care physician practices throughout the region. LVHN’s facilities and construction department has successfully managed the acquisition of three community hospitals in the past three years and currently averages 100,000 square feet of renovation projects and 300,000 square feet of new facility projects each year. Relying on a collaborative partnership approach to building projects, LVNH engages providers in design exercises to determine flow models and create design standards that are applied consistently across the network (standardized check-in, waiting, and exam spaces, etc.). Additionally, LVNH has found success in embracing alternative delivery methods that break through traditional design delivery silos, using innovative partner selection, bidding, and bundling methodologies.

YEAR IN REVIEW: LVNH recently opened two community health centers and an inpatient hospital addition—three projects that represent a portion of the more than $150 million in projects completed during the last 12 months. The Family Health Pavilion is a 161,000-square-foot, four-story addition that revitalizes an original section of the Lehigh Valley Hospital–Muhlenberg campus in Bethlehem, Pa. The Health Center at Palmer Township is a new two-story, 57,000-square-foot facility in Easton, Pa., which is LVHN’s largest health center to date. Also in Easton is the new Health Center at Easton, a two-story, 40,000-square-foot building. Efforts like these allow LVHN to maintain a razor-sharp focus on population health management and provide better access to care in the communities it serves, the results of work conducted in an internal innovation center where staff analyze health data, new clinical methodologies, and emerging technologies to shape building and care delivery solutions. The network also prioritizes community needs in its projects, consulting and partnering with local municipalities before creating project concepts. Case in point: LVHN has been an instrumental partner in the revitalization of downtown Allentown, Pa., establishing a health and wellness center, medical practice, and centralized administrative offices as part of the One City Center development, which also includes a new sports arena, hotels, retail, and restaurants.

WHAT’S NEXT: Continuing to expand upon its community commitment, LVHN is preparing to open a 150,000-square-foot ambulatory campus in Hazleton, Pa., which adds services locally while taking pressure off the existing Lehigh Valley Hospital–Hazleton, an older facility currently undergoing its own modernization project. Plans are also being developed for a 225,000-square-foot hospital campus with a surgical focus in LVHN’s eastern market as well as several additional health centers. Master plans for each of its campuses are being developed to establish clear roadmaps for future development and utilization.