Public Invited to St. Luke’s Community Health Needs Assessments Presentations

St. Luke’s University Health Network recently completed its 2019-2022 Community Health Needs Assessment (CHNA) and will present its findings in a series of public presentations. The community is encouraged to attend the sessions and participate in the discussions.

“The top three health priorities identified are: 1) improving access to care and reducing health disparities; 2) promoting healthy lifestyles and preventing chronic disease; and, 3) improving mental/behavioral health,” said Rajika E. Reed, Ph.D., MPH, M.Ed., Senior Network Director of Epidemiology & Strategy.

“At the presentations, we hope to share the data and engage in discussions about continued and future collaborations and partnerships to effectively address the needs.”

The schedule of presentations includes:

• Western Rural Campuses (Miners, Blue Mountain and Orwigsburg): Wednesday, May 29, from 1 to 2:30 pm at Lehigh Carbon Community College’s Morgan (Scheller Building) Center, 234 High Street, Tamaqua.
• Bethlehem: Tuesday, June 11, at 4 pm at Nitschmann Middle School, 1002 West Union Boulevard in Bethlehem. 
• Monroe: Wednesday, June 12, from 9:30 to 11:30 am at Keystone Hall, Room 202, on the Northampton Community College Monroe Campus in Tannersville.

Light refreshments will be provided.

Additional presentations are planned for Allentown at the Sacred Heart Auditorium on Friday, September 20, and for Quakertown and Easton communities in Pennsylvania and Warren County in New Jersey. The time and place of these presentations are to be determined.

“At the meetings, we will present findings and share our Network-wide 2019-2022 implementation strategy,” said Bonnie Coyle, M.D., M.S., Chair of Community Health and Preventive Medicine.

The 2019 St. Luke’s Network and Campus Assessments were posted on May 15 and can be found at: https://www.slhn.org/community-health/community-health-needs-assessment.

Reserve a seat for the community presentation by calling St. Luke’s InfoLink at 866-STLUKES (785-8537) option #4.

About St. Luke’s

Founded in 1872, St. Luke’s University Health Network (SLUHN) is a fully integrated, regional, non-profit network of more than 15,000 employees providing services at 10 hospitals and over 320 outpatient sites.  With annual net revenue greater than $2 billion, the Network’s service area includes 10 counties: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe and Schuylkill counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey.  Dedicated to advancing medical education, St. Luke’s is the preeminent teaching hospital in central-eastern Pennsylvania.  In partnership with Temple University, St. Luke’s created the Lehigh Valley’s first and only regional medical school campus.  It also operates the nation’s longest continuously operating School of Nursing, established in 1884, and 28 fully accredited graduate medical educational programs with 226 residents and fellows.  St. Luke’s is the only Lehigh Valley-based health care system with Medicare’s five- and four-star ratings (the highest) for quality, efficiency and patient satisfaction.  St. Luke’s is both a Leapfrog Group and Healthgrades Top Hospital and a Newsweek World’s Best Hospital.  In 2019, three of IBM Watson Health’s 100 Top Hospitals were St. Luke’s hospitals.  St. Luke’s University Hospital has earned the 100 Top Major Teaching Hospital designation from IBM Watson Health seven times total and five years in a row. St. Luke’s has also been cited by IBM Watson Health as a 50 Top Cardiovascular Program.  Utilizing the Epic electronic medical record (EMR) system for both inpatient and outpatient services, the Network is a multi-year recipient of the Most Wired award recognizing the breadth of the SLUHN’s information technology applications such as telehealth, online scheduling and online pricing information.  St. Luke’s is also recognized as one of the state’s lowest cost providers.