Why Our Finances Matter

We had another strong year. Our strength creates great care for our patients.

Learning and caring

Medical residents like Anna Keane, D.O. (left), receive hands-on experience and deliver quality care to local people like Michelle Klotz (right) and her son, Jadyn, at the Lehigh Valley Family Health Center.

You dreamed of remodeling your kitchen, but it didn’t happen until you saved enough money. You probably waited months or years, saving or making smart investments, until everything was in place.

LVHHN isn’t much different from your home. Any improvements—new equipment to replace what is worn-out, or new programs and facilities to meet the needs of our patients—must be well planned. The hospital’s financial strength allows us to make such improvements and support programs that help our community.

In fiscal year 2006, LVHHN had a strong financial performance. Our patient services net margin (revenue minus expenses) is $74.6 million. Because we are not-for-profit, we reinvest that entire margin back into our community. Here’s how our reinvestment leads to better care:

Care Inside Our Community
Why we’re doing it—This year, we invested a record $101.6 million in community benefit. That includes free care for people who can’t afford it. It also includes clinics, partnerships with community groups, wellness programs, free flu vaccines and more.

How it helps our community—Just weeks shy of his first birthday, Jadyn Farber became congested, and his mom, Michelle Klotz of Allentown, grew concerned. She trusted Anna Keane, D.O., and colleagues at Lehigh Valley Family Health Center, where Klotz, a mother of two, and her family have received care for six years. “It’s close to home—we can walk to our appointments,” Klotz says. “The nurses and doctors are very nice and very good.” The diagnosis: Jadyn just had a cold. Now baby and mom are breathing easier.

One happy family

Brandi Wroten and her husband, Jim (with sons Skylar and Nicholas), survived a difficult pregnancy with lots of support and the help of technology.

Technology That Saves Lives
Why we’re doing it—Many communities outside the Lehigh Valley don’t have access to the kind of specialists we have here. But they still need the best care. We’re investing in tele-medicine. It’s our way of bringing needed health care services to people outside the area who otherwise could not receive the care they need.

How it helps our community—For Brandi and Jim Wroten of Mahanoy City, a prenatal visit close to their home became far from routine. Brandi’s local obstetrician saw something unusual on her ultrasound. Using tele-medicine, the obstetrician sent her ultrasound via computer to LVHHN maternal-fetal medicine specialist William Roberts, M.D. He diagnosed it as hydrocephalus, or water on the brain, and was part of a team that ensured the Wrotens’ son, Skylar, was born safely and received proper care after birth. “Everyone we trusted was right there for us,” Brandi says.

It’s a bed—and a chair

When Dennis Barto of Mertztown (right) felt well enough to walk again after fighting pneumonia, his nurse, Tracy Erie, R.N., was able to make his bed into the shape of a recliner to help. It’s one of the many high-tech features of our new patient beds.

State-of-the-Art Patient Beds
Why we’re doing it—When you’re in the hospital, you need a bed. Some of ours at LVH–Cedar Crest are 20 years old, and technology is changing. To keep us on the leading edge, we purchased new beds for our intensive care units.

How it helps our community—When you’re receiving intensive care, you need to be weighed every day. “It helps us know whether you’re retaining fluid,” says Tracy Erie, R.N., of ICU West. Before the new beds, intensive care patients needed to be lifted into a special hammock-type device and weighed on a scale. Now, the new beds have a scale inside. They also accommodate air or foam mattresses that can be made more or less firm depending on a patient’s condition. “These beds make the patient much more comfortable, and protect patients from skin breakdown,” Erie says.

A new home

That’s what Stuart Fause (right) found in New Tripoli. He, his wife, Susan, and their two dogs (Jake and Dailey) go for a three-mile walk every day.

The Revitalized LVH–Cedar Crest
Why we’re doing it—We cared for 132 more inpatients and 13,725 more outpatients at LVH–Cedar Crest this year than last. To meet the demand, we added $58.9 million to expand the LVH–Cedar Crest project. We’re adding more ICU and Burn Center beds, expanding the emergency, surgery, pharmacy and dietary departments, and adding more parking and “shelled” space for growth. Our financial strength also allows us to pay for unexpected increases in the costs of materials.

How it helps our community—When Stuart Fause retired, he and his wife, Susan, looked for a home close to their children. As former executive vice president for New York Methodist Hospital (part of the New York-Presbyterian Healthcare System), Fause also wanted to live near an excellent hospital. He chose the Lehigh Valley, and he’s one of about 30,000 people who have moved here in the last five years.
Today, Fause lives in New Tripoli, and his neighbors—many of whom also are new to the region—ask him for medical advice. “I tell them to go to LVHHN,” Fause says. “It has everything you’d find in the nation’s largest teaching hospitals.”

Want to know more? For a detailed look at our finances, click here. You also are invited to attend our Community Meeting on Dec. 6.

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