The first of two Lehigh Valley Health Network ExpressCARE locations in Carbon County is set to open next week.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held Wednesday afternoon at the new ExpressCARE at Lehighton, located at 363 N. First St.

In a tour, Marisa Kutchmarick, administrator for Lehigh Valley Physician Group, showed off the clinical area where patients will see their provider.

Mark Prezioso, assistant medical director for the ExpressCARE Lehigh Valley Physician Group, said that all the rooms are set up the same, and added that the facility provides services for sprains and strains, people that have symptoms related to the flu, cold, bronchitis, pneumonia.

“We have X-ray services available in the event that someone had an injury with sports, or falls outside,” Prezioso said. “So we offer a wide variety of care within this facility.”

Prezioso said one such offering includes the new portable imaging, where within the facility the X-ray machine can be brought into the patients, so if somebody needs a chest X-ray because they’re worried about pneumonia, or someone is worried about a broken ankle, the machine is actually brought into the room to them and they can take care of everything at that time.

“So we’re really excited about this,” he said. “This is the first time we’re utilizing this at our ExpressCAREs, and we’re really happy to bring it to Lehighton.”

Prezioso said the facility also has a medication dispensing program.

“So, if somebody comes in and they have a sinus infection, we’re able to dispense medication to here“ he said. “So we have a really well developed list for that specific to ExpressCARE patients, so we’re really excited about that.”

Kutchmarick said that an open house was conducted later in the day and gave a quick guide into what conditions can be treated at an ExpressCARE, along with what conditions must be seen at an emergency room.

As of Tuesday, the ExpressCARE at Lehighton will be open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily and provide residents with access to treatment for common illnesses and minor injuries without an appointment.

Other LVHN services currently available at the Lehighton facility include LVPG Family Practice — Lehighton with Kenneth Sharp, DO; LVPG Hematology — Lehighton with Surendra Shah, MD, and Elena Brinker, CRNP; and Infusion services.

To make room for ExpressCARE at Lehighton, Lehigh Valley Physician Group last month relocated four specialty practices to 1001 Mahoning St., Lehighton. Those include LVPG Cardiology-Lehighton- Cheri Silverstein-Fadlon, MD, and Jeffrey Snyder, MD; LVPG Neurology-Lehighton, Shahzad Khan, MD; LVPG Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine — Lehighton — Brian Burlew, MD; and LVHN Vascular Surgery-Lehighton- John Welkie, MD, and Christopher Werter, MD.

The health network also plans to open an ExpressCARE at Palmerton later this year at the Pencor Services, Inc. building at 528 Delaware Ave., and the two facilities will mark its 20th and 21st ExpressCARE centers in the region.

Along with ExpressCARE, LVHN announced earlier this month that it plans to build a new $65 million hospital in Mahoning Township.

That 89,000-square-foot facility, to be called Lehigh Valley Hospital (LVH) −Carbon, will be constructed on 35 acres of open farmland on the north side of Blakeslee Boulevard, cater-cornered to the Walmart Superstore.

Initial plans call for a hospital that includes all private rooms for inpatient care, and a medical office building.

The health network plans to break ground on that project in the spring of 2020, and anticipates opening in the fall of 2021.