All Points Lead to H

When asked, we respond by partnering with other hospitals and helping other communities

The great outdoors

Thanks to our partnership with Gnaden Huetten Memorial Hospital, Rita Richert can enjoy a hike through the woods without becoming short of breath. After surviving a heart attack, “Life is a little sweeter these days,” she says.

Our Partnerships Win Awards

Regional MI Alert saves lives and now it's an award winnder, too. It's one of only ? programs to receive a Hospital Association of Pennsylvania Achievement Award for Patient Care for 2006!

“We heal, comfort and care for the people of our community.” It’s the opening phrase of LVHHN’s mission statement. Does that mean we ignore the health care needs of those outside the Lehigh Valley? “No,” says emergency medicine chairman Michael Weinstock, M.D. “When smaller regional hospitals ask for assistance, it’s our obligation to help.”

Hospital partnerships are nothing new. As the area’s first Level 1 Trauma Center, we’ve developed relationships with other hospitals to care for people who need immediate, lifesaving help. Why? Many other hospitals don’t have the resources to do so. Here’s how our newest partnerships with three regional hospitals help more people live well:

Landing in Lehighton
Rita Richert’s hands were numb, shoulders sore and breathing difficult. At the ED in Lehighton’s Gnaden Huetten Memorial Hospital, tests quickly determined the Albrightsville woman was having a heart attack. So, the ED physician initiated an MI Alert, a process ensuring Richert’s blocked artery would be opened within 120 minutes.

While Lehighton’s caregivers administered medications to thin her blood, lower her heart’s workload and relieve her pain, MedEvac personnel flew to Lehighton. “I was scared but comforted knowing things were happening quickly,” Richert says. Only 103 minutes after walking through Lehighton’s ED doors, Richert arrived via MedEvac to LVH–Cedar Crest’s cardiac catheterization lab.

“This partnership has helped nearly 30 patients like Rita Richert since 2004,” says Regional Heart Center medical director Michael Rossi, M.D. To strengthen the partnership, our caregivers taught Lehighton’s caregivers how to initiate an MI Alert on their own. “This saves valuable minutes,” Rossi says. “Wasted time equals damage to heart muscle.”

Richert didn’t have to worry about that. She received an artery-opening angioplasty and suffered no additional heart damage. “This partnership saved my life,” she says.

Specialized Care in Sellersville
As an ED technician 15 years ago, Deb Bandura helped people in her Sellersville-area community by helping to fix broken bones and heal scars at Grand View Hospital. Now, she’s helping the people of her community connect with quality heart-care services.

Bandura, a registered cardiac invasive specialist at LVHHN, is part of a team that designed Grand View’s new cardiac catheterization lab, the first in that hospital’s history. She worked with LVHHN’s medical staff to design the new space. “Grand View wanted to emulate what works well for us, including all-digital technology to help give caregivers the clearest heart images,” Bandura says.

Colleagues from the Heart Care Group staff Grand View’s lab, which currently handles diagnostic procedures. It will soon offer artery-opening procedures like angioplasty and stents. “When a patient needs open-heart surgery, we refer them to LVHHN,” Bandura says. “That referral has already helped save one man’s life.”

Helping Hazleton
When he experienced stomach pain, West Hazleton fire chief Bob Ward traveled an hour to LVHHN. “The hospital has an excellent reputation,” he says. Diagnosed with diverticulitis, he had successful surgery. “Now I have no pain and can eat anything,” he says. “It was well worth the drive.”

Today, Ward is “ecstatic” to learn we’re partnering with Hazleton General Hospital’s emergency department (ED). It started last year, when officials there asked us to review blueprints for their new ED. “We suggested opening up floor space and adding beds to improve the way patients flow through the department,” Weinstock says.

They then asked us to operate the new facility. “Beginning July 1, seven of our ED physicians will staff Hazleton’s ED 24/7,” Weinstock says. “The partnership will be good for Hazleton and will fulfill our mission to care for its people.”

Ward is happy to know the care he received here will be available to those he rescues from car accidents and fires. “The people of Hazleton shouldn’t have to leave town for quality emergency care,” he says. “Thanks to this partnership, they won’t have to.”

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