Monroe County residents now have access to a neighborhood hospital located in Bartonsville.
Lehigh Valley Health Network, part of Jefferson Health, added Lehigh Valley Hospital- Pocono Creek to its network of neighborhood hospitals, also including Lehigh Valley Hospital- Macungie and Lehigh Valley Hospital- Gilbertsville.
“I would say things are going extremely well. Since we opened on Jan. 27 we had a little bit of a snow storm prior to opening, but it didn't stop us from opening the doors to the community. We've been well received by the community,” said Holly Badali, the chief operating officer for neighborhood hospitals for the health network.
What is a neighborhood hospital?
The Pennsylvania Department of Health defines neighborhood hospitals, also known as micro-hospitals, as “an acute care hospital that offers emergency services and maintains facilities for at least 10 inpatient beds with a narrow scope of inpatient acute care services, such as no surgical services.”
They differ from traditional hospitals in their scale. But they offer an alternative for patients who don’t need care from a larger, and in many cases farther away, hospital.
“They're designed to complement traditional hospitals, not replace them, and they do provide emergency care, imaging lab services and short-term inpatient stays, but for patients requiring those higher, more specialized care, we seamlessly transfer them to one of our larger facilities, so we are able to care for the vast majority of patients, but there are those patients that require a higher level of care, and that's how we differ,” Badali said.
Badali said the project has been in the works for the past few years.
“This area in particular needed a healthcare facility closer to home," she said. "We do recognize that there are other hospitals in the area, but we also know that, post COVID, that people are looking for options to go to smaller places that deliver care and not necessarily those big hospitals. This is one of the ways to serve a growing community and create access points.”
The health system realized the need for more diverse and accessible rural healthcare options.
“Establishing neighborhood hospitals is part of our mission to give our communities more health care options than ever before and to make those options easier to use and reach,” Baligh Yehia, president of Jefferson Health, said in a statement. “Our goal is to make it as convenient as possible for people to get the compassionate, expert care they need, when they need it. This is especially important for the Pocono region, which has seen tremendous growth in recent decades.”
Making rural health more accessible
The neighborhood hospital’s emergency room has 11 emergency department beds. There are specific designations among those beds, with one emergency room being for behavioral health, one for obstetrics and one for resuscitation.
The hospital also features inpatient care for patients who need overnight stays. There are 10 acute care beds, and the average stay of patients so far has been two days.
About 60 people work at the facility.
“We have a very experienced group of colleagues that we work with, from board certified emergency department physicians to nursing staff who have years of whether that's emergency department nursing or inpatient nursing. We pride ourselves on hiring people with experience, and that goes for our imaging department as well,” Badali said.
Badali said they’ve received positive feedback from patient surveys so far. She said the hospital’s goal is to make everyone feel welcome and cared for, regardless of insurance type or where they live.
“We provide care to everyone who presents on our doorstep, and we welcome them,” she said.
The health system plans to expand its neighborhood hospital model, with a fourth in Hellertown, Northampton County, slated to open by early 2027.
“Some people have asked why micro-hospitals are now evolving, but health care is evolving, and as we see communities growing, they allow health systems to respond to that growth by placing these smaller hospitals within the communities that need them to improve access, reduce travel times during emergencies, as we know time is essential in those emergencies,” Badali said.
