BETHLEHEM, Pa., Oct. 6, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- St. Luke's University Health Network opened the new St. Luke's Heart Hospital at St. Luke's Anderson Campus on October 2.

"The new St. Luke's Heart Hospital stands as an essential expression of what American ingenuity, innovation and determination can achieve," St. Luke's President & CEO Rick Anderson said. "Like every hospital built by St. Luke's, it was constructed with American steel with an unwavering commitment to excellence. Most importantly, it ensures that patients throughout our region have access to some of the finest cardiovascular care available anywhere in the world, right here in the Lehigh Valley."

Construction began in 2024 on the $252 million Heart Hospital is the largest construction project in St. Luke's more than 150-year history, both in dollar figure and square footage.

The five-story, approximately 355,000-square-foot facility is seamlessly integrated into St. Luke's Anderson Campus. A central corridor on each of the upper floors stretches more than 100 yards. With its 140 beds, the Heart Hospital nearly doubles the Anderson Campus' inpatient capacity.

Once fully operational, the Heart Hospital will support hundreds of permanent, family-sustaining health care jobs.

The new facility will provide patients with convenient access to the full spectrum of St. Luke's nationally recognized cardiovascular services, including four dedicated heart operating rooms, one hybrid operating room,10 advanced interventional suites for cardiac catheterization, electrophysiology and interventional radiology, in addition to a specially designed cardiac intensive care unit providing high-acuity heart patients advanced specialized care.

"When I look at this building, I don't just see a hospital," said Raymond Durkin, MD, St. Luke's Cardiovascular Services Chairman. "I see lives that will be saved, families that will have more time together, and a commitment to delivering world-class cardiovascular services close to home for generations to come,"

The Heart Hospital is fully equipped with the latest, most innovative equipment and technologies to best treat cardiac patients: state-of-the-art imaging equipment to visualize and assess the most intricate heart issues, heart-lung machines to pump blood during open-heart surgeries and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machines to provide patients with continuous cardiopulmonary support. 

The Heart Hospital also serves as a Siemens international show site for cardiac imaging and will attract physicians and other health care leaders from around the globe to experience the highest standard of cardiovascular care in action.

Despite its size and complexity, the project was completed at a relatively low per-square-foot cost by industry standards, a testament to St. Luke's extensive experience in hospital construction. In recent years, St. Luke's has built five full-service acute care hospitals — more than any other health system in Pennsylvania.

The facility also includes features that will improve flow and otherwise benefit the broader Anderson Campus, including a new and larger cafeteria and a rooftop helipad. The helipad will facilitate the rapid transport of patients to the campus trauma center, which this month earned the highest-level trauma accreditation reserved for the most advanced trauma centers.

About St. Luke's

Founded in 1872, St. Luke's University Health Network is a fully integrated, regional, non-profit network of 24,000 employees providing services at 15 campuses and 350+ outpatient sites. With annual net revenue of $5 billion, the Network's service area includes 11 counties in Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Dedicated to advancing medical education, St. Luke's is the preeminent teaching hospital in central-eastern Pennsylvania.

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SOURCE St. Luke's University Health Network, Inc.