In response to high demand for health care throughout the region and requests from community members to provide obstetrics and newborn services in the Bethlehem area, Lehigh Valley Health Network is planning construction of a new four-story pavilion on the Lehigh Valley Hospital-Muhlenberg campus in Bethlehem.

The new pavilion will include obstetrics and newborn services that will accommodate about 2,000 deliveries annually.These services will be the first in LVH-Muhlenberg's 54-year history.The new pavilion also will include a Center for Inpatient Rehabilitation and shell space to accommodate future growth.The cost of the project is $93.6 million. Groundbreaking is tentatively planned for September 2015, with the building expected to be open by July 1, 2017. The construction costs will be paid through a combination of capital funding from LVHN and philanthropic gifts from community members. The project is expected to create about 225 new construction jobs and about 185 new patient care jobs at LVH-Muhlenberg."The number of births rises each year at LVH-Cedar Crest, and we now accommodate more than 4,000 births annually at that location," said LVHN president and chief executive officer Brian Nester, DO, MBA, FACOEP. "In the last five years, the number of deliveries involving Northampton County mothers has increased by almost 25 percent. Currently, 16 percent of all births at LVH-Cedar Crest involve Northampton County mothers.Nester says by expanding high-quality obstetrics care to LVH-Muhlenberg, LVHN is filling a need and giving people from Northampton County and the surrounding area an option to have their babies closer to home. Additionally, the network is expanding rehabilitation services in response to a need for inpatient-specific rehabilitation on the LVH-Muhlenberg campus.The new pavilion will offer 161,000 square feet of space. Floors two and three will be reserved for obstetrics and newborn services, which will include:• A mother-baby unit with 20 private rooms• A nursery with 16 bassinettes• A Level II NICU with 10 private rooms• Eight state-of-the-art labor, delivery and recovery rooms• Two operating rooms• Five obstetrics triage beds• A three-bay post-anesthesia care unit area• A four-bed antepartum unitFloor one will be home to the Center for Inpatient Rehabilitation-Muhlenberg. It will include 28 rehabilitation beds and is similar to the Center for Inpatient Rehabilitation-Cedar Crest currently under construction inside the Kasych Family Pavilion at LVH-Cedar Crest in Salisbury Township.The fourth floor of the new pavilion will be shelled and reserved for potential future growth. The project also will include increased parking and improvements on Schoenersville Road between Macada Road and the Route 22 east on ramp.