Just several weeks after it opened, one hospital is already at full capacity with the holiday season just around the corner.

St. Luke’s Carbon Campus in Franklin Township has seen a huge demand for emergency services, according to John Nespoli, president of St. Luke’s Carbon Campus,

“We built this fabulous medical center to serve our community, and we are sure seeing it,” Nespoli said. “We’re seeing patients coming from further distances.”

Nespoli said this is the first time the Carbon County region has had a hospital with advanced critical care physicians 24/7.

“So not only are we seeing patients from further away, we’re seeing from locally, we’re also seeing higher acuity,” he said. “COVID is one-third of the factor, the rest are patients with heart disease, lung disease, trauma.”

Meeting the demand

Nespoli noted that St. Luke’s University Health Network just opened the doors to its $80 million Carbon campus, the biggest such project in Franklin Township’s history, on Nov. 20.

“We’re off to a very fast start,” he said. “The demands are greater than our capacity.”

That has forced the campus to get creative, as it’s set up a Fast Track area in which Emergency Room departments for lower acuity patients will still go through triage, which is anticipated to expedite some of the care.

Nespoli said another step that has been taken is the campus has implemented its ER department concierge service with a social worker who has advanced skills in keeping patients informed, comfort measures, making sure that communication occurs so that they know exactly where they are in the care process.

Nespoli added the campus does have some extra rooms it can use due to the ER overflow, which is a good step to handle some of the capacity.

Expansion sooner than expected

“We opened our operating rooms on Monday, and they are already booming,” he said. “We’re going to move much more rapidly in the expansions of our hospital than we thought we would.”

Nespoli said the shell space will go from 17 to 29 beds in the ER, adding it was anticipated that was going to be a 2023 project, but instead, they will be moving forward with the concept by the spring of 2022.

Additionally, he said they also have approval for the third floor, and can add another 40 beds, and received approval to start working on the third floor and add 24 inpatient beds that will take them from 40 to 64 inpatient units by the end of 2022.

Nespoli said they already had approval to go build a medical office building attached to the medical center.

“I think we’re just thrilled for the community,” he said. “It’s filling out just as we hoped, just faster and bigger than we thought.”

Nespoli also praised employees for their teamwork, and said they have displayed flexibility by changing their hours and shifts to provide better coverage.

Hospital officials encouraged anyone who has a nonemergency, urgent health care need, or flulike symptoms to go to St. Luke’s Urgent Care. Those who are experiencing chest pain or having stroke symptoms should go to the ER.

“We’ve got to encourage the folks in the community to really utilize the other (health care) services out there,” he said. “We have 5 CareNow (facilities) in our region, Palmerton, Lehighton, Jim Thorpe, Mahanoy City, and one soon to be opening in Tamaqua as well; those are great resources for folks to utilize.”

Trust built with community

Joe Pinto, chief operating officer for the St. Luke’s Lehighton/Carbon hospitals, said the relationship between the hospital and the community has been a win-win.

“I think we’re just so overwhelmed with the community’s response, and just a source of pride that we’re here,” Pinto said. “We’ve always been here to take care of the community.”

Pinto said that’s been the case for several years now.

“Over the past three years, we’ve developed a great (sense of) trust with our community and beyond; now we’re seeing that in droves,” he said. “Based on that trust that we’ve been able to really build at the Lehighton Campus, and now at the Carbon Campus, we’ve also been able to build a lot of trust with our network; they’ve been equally as spectacular by allowing us to have those resources to expand so rapidly.”

Pinto lauded the hospital’s services.

“We have a fantastic primary care network with outstanding accessibility, same-day appointments available, we have over 46 primary care (family) doctors right here in our backyard that can take care of the more chronic things that may pop up,” he said. “We just ask for people’s patience as we work through these unprecedented times.”

Pinto said patients can be assured they will receive the best care possible.

“You’re not going to get better care,” he said.

But, it’s also up to the people to do their part, Pinto said.

“We encourage the community to keep up with their health care, screenings, regular checkups, so we avoid hospitalization,” he said. “Maintenance, and making sure that we’re eating healthy, exercising, in the routine of regular checkups, those are so key to just maintaining good quality health care for each individual.”

Pinto said the network is grateful to the community for its support.

“We literally reach out to our senior leaders, and they have trust because of the support of our community,” he said. “It is overwhelming, and an overwhelming sense of pride that this community puts this much trust and care within the community.”