COALDALE - The state recently gave St. Luke's Hospital-Miners Campus a $750,000 grant to help with the construction of a $5.2 million surgical suite, Micah J. Gursky, director of development at the hospital, said Friday.
The facility at 360 W. Ruddle St., Coaldale, has two operating rooms on its third floor. Over the next year, the hospital will move offices for outpatient services out of the fourth floor and build three new operating rooms there, Gursky said.
Eventually, the two operating rooms on the third floor will be put out of service, Gursky said.
"We're planning to begin in September and the project should be done in May 2014," Gursky said.
St. Luke's Hospital-Miners Campus is part of the St. Luke's University Health Network, a regional network of hospitals, physicians and related organizations providing care primarily in Lehigh, Northampton, Monroe, Carbon, Schuylkill, Bucks, Montgomery and Berks counties in Pennsylvania and Warren County in New Jersey, according to its website at www.slhn.org.
Founded in 1910, the Miners Campus is a 45-bed acute care hospital. It became part of the St. Luke's University Health Network in 2000 and provides health care services to more than 11,000 people annually. Its services also include a home health agency and 48-bed skilled nursing facility, according to the website.
"The Miners Campus employs more than 330 local residents, making it one of the area's largest employers," Jon Hopcraft, executive director of the state Senate Urban Affairs and Housing Committee, said in a press release Thursday regarding the state grant.
In recent months, there's been a need for more operating room space, Gursky said.
"This is because we've brought on a couple of new surgeons," Gurksy said.
Dr. Chandra S. Reddy came on board in 2011 and Dr. Jonathan Bingham arrived in December, he said.
"Dr. Reddy is a fellowship-trained orthopedic surgeon. He's been so busy. He's the No. 1 reason we need more OR space. And Dr. Bingham is with St. Luke's Center for Urology, and he's doing very well. He does pediatric urology and adult urology," Gursky said.
The offices for outpatient services on the fourth floor include a wound care center and a urology center.
"We're going to be constructing three new operating rooms there, a new endoscopy suite and a new same-day surgical suite and all the ancillary services that go along with that. For example, we're going to have a brand-new patient and family waiting area, new physician locker rooms and lounges and an expanded recovery room," Gursky said.
The project will not disrupt surgical services. The operating rooms on the third floor will remain in use throughout construction, Gursky said.
Eventually, some the offices for outpatient services on the fourth floor will be moved to the third floor, and others will be moved to St. Luke's Tamaqua Medical Center, 137 N. Railroad St., that will open April 9, according to Gursky.
The $750,000 state grant the hospital received was a matching grant, provided by the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program, Hopcraft said.
"It required at least a dollar-for-dollar match. But with private donations we're received, we're going to more than double match it, and the balance of the project will be covered by the St. Luke's University Health Network," Gursky said.
"This grant allows our local hospital to offer more state-of-the-art services to local patients. I am pleased to see the constant upgrades this hospital makes to better serve the needs of the residents in this region," state Sen. David Argall, R-29, said Thursday.
Argall and Rep. Doyle Heffley, R-122, announced the grant award in Hopcraft's press release Thursday.