St. Luke’s breaks ground on Women & Babies Pavilion on Allentown campus

St. Luke’s Allentown Campus marked the start of construction of the new Women & Babies Pavilion with a groundbreaking ceremony on Monday. 

The project will cost approximately $50 million and is scheduled for completion in early 2024. 

The new facility is expected to increase the community’s access to high-quality birthing, post-partum and newborn services, including neonatal intensive care. 

 The five-story, 85,000 square-foot, tower is being built on the east side of the current hospital to meet the growing patient needs for these services at this hospital campus. 

 “We couldn’t have planned, invested in and begun this important project without having overwhelming support of our community, many who live nearby and tell us they value the personal, state-of-the-art care they receive here,” said St. Luke’s Allentown Campus President Bill Moyer. “We are honored to earn their trust each time they come here to receive the services they expect and deserve and that our skilled staff are pleased to provide.” 

Moyer said with the expanded services and double the size of the current units, the pavilion will be able to accommodate as many as 3,000 patients per year.     

When the building is complete, the first three floors will be occupied immediately. The second floor will house the level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, where babies born prematurely, before 32 weeks, will be cared for versus being transferred to a more advanced NICU. 

 LifeAire air purification technology on this unit will create an ultra-sterile, negative air flow environment to protect the tiny and often ill newborns, their parents and caregivers from infections.