William Markson and Robert Reinhart

St. Luke’s University Health Network

St. Luke’s University Health Network is planning to resume elective surgeries and procedures today. Our hospitals are safe, and we’re ready for you.

A lot has happened in recent months. COVID-19 became an international health concern and quickly spread to the United States. In March it was characterized as a pandemic as it surfaced in the New York metropolitan area. To contain COVID-19, the commonwealth of Pennsylvania issued a stay-at-home order on April 1.

St. Luke’s leadership and providers quickly prepared for an onslaught of very sick patients by preparing to expand our bed capacity, obtaining adequate testing capabilities and personal protective equipment and educating our community about the seriousness of the imminent health threat.

St. Luke’s was at the forefront of strategizing rigorous safety protocols for addressing COVID-19 in our region. Our hospital visitation policy underwent strict regulation changes, universal masking of health care workers and patients became mandatory, elective surgeries were suspended and COVID-19 testing was offered to those who needed it.

Fortunately, thus far our region has managed to avoid the kind of outbreak experienced by some of our neighboring counties. There have been fewer than 200 confirmed cases to date in Carbon County and a similarly low number of confirmed cases in the portion of Schuylkill County served by our St. Luke’s Miners Campus. We believe this low viral penetration is due to factors including the strong response from our residents to stay at home, the region’s low density of housing and the small number of commuters to the New York City area.

COVID-19 will continue to be a concern for some time, but as St. Luke’s physicians we must make sure all our local community health care needs are being met. We’re acutely aware of our community members neglecting necessary treatment for heart attacks and strokes, putting off needed procedures and tests and experiencing mental health related problems due to isolation and job loss. These issues must be addressed quickly and responsibly. Health care needs such as these should never be ignored.

As we resume elective surgeries and procedures on May 11, we want to remind our community that St. Luke’s has been and continues to be among the safest of places to be during a pandemic. We’ve always treated our staff and our patients’ safety as priority. We retain the universal masking policy, maintain safe waiting areas and provide preoperative COVID-19 testing.

As practicing physicians and leaders at the St. Luke’s Lehighton and St. Luke’s Miners campuses who have lived and practiced medicine in this region for decades, we would not approve resuming elective surgeries and other services unless we were willing to recommend them to our own family members - and we are. You have our word: Our hospitals are safe, and we’re ready for you.

William Markson, MD, Cardiologist, VP of Medical Affairs at Lehighton Campus and Robert Reinhart, MD, VP for medical affairs at the Miner’s campus.