Melanie Koehler’s interest in pediatrics stems from her experience as a pediatric patient. When she was 12, she had spinal fusion surgery for scoliosis to straighten the curvature in her spine. Today, she is a pediatrician with St. Luke’s Primary Care in Tamaqua.

“I spent an entire summer in a children’s hospital,” she said. “I was impressed by the people who chose to take care of kids and how they made what could have been a very negative experience relatively positive.”

Dr. Koehler treats ill children, monitors their growth and development, advises parents, and navigates her patients to receive needed inpatient or specialty care.

St. Luke’s University Health Network has developed a regional pediatric care system so every child can receive top-notch pediatric care. Pediatric services include a free-standing specialty care center, a pediatric intensive care unit, a recently renovated pediatric unit and a network of pediatric practices enabling children to receive care close to home.

Recognizing a shortage of pediatricians in the area, St. Luke’s recruited Dr. Koehler in September 2021. Within the first year, she had hundreds of patients, and the practice is growing.

“St. Luke’s was willing to support me from day one,” Dr. Koehler said. “They had the faith that I’m going to make this a successful practice available to anybody who needs a pediatrician in this area. I love working here. It’s just so rewarding.”

Previously, many families traveled to Allentown and Bethlehem to see a pediatrician, while most children saw family physicians who she says have provided excellent care for kids for decades.

But pediatricians have additional training in caring for children specifically. Dr. Koehler completed a three-year pediatric residency at St. Christopher’s Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia. Over the next 27 years, she worked as a pediatrician in hospital and private practice settings.

Similarly, children traveled to Philadelphia or Hershey for specialty care. To address this, St. Luke’s recruited pediatric sub-specialists. Last May, the Network opened the St. Luke’s Pediatric Specialty Center, a 37,500-square-foot free-standing facility in Center Valley dedicated entirely to kids. Dr. Koehler recently toured the facility.

“Seeing a pediatric specialist can be life-altering for a child,” she said. “The St. Luke’s Specialty Center is a beautiful, kid-centric facility. I enjoyed meeting the specialists I talked to on the phone or texted. They seem wonderful, and it’s nice to say that to a parent.”

If she diagnoses a condition that needs expert evaluation and treatment, she contacts the specialist and helps the patient schedule an appointment. To speed up diagnosis and treatment, she orders tests the specialist will need for the evaluation, so the results are ready at the first specialist appointment. Frequently, Dr. Koehler, working with the specialist, performs routine care, such as weight checks for a child seeing a pediatric cardiologist, saving the parent from missing work.

Dr. Koehler works closely with the emergency department staff at St. Luke’s Carbon and St. Luke’s Miners Campuses, who she says provide excellent care. Sometimes, she’ll send a patient directly to the ER, such as a child she recently diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. She also stabilizes children for ambulance or helicopter transport to St. Luke’s University Hospital – Bethlehem, the location of the pediatric inpatient unit and PICU, which provides advanced care to critically ill children.

Dr. Koehler understands what having a health condition means to a child. Before her scoliosis diagnosis, she studied ballet, hoping to be a dancer, a dream crushed.

“Instead of letting myself become devastated, I channeled my energy into academics,” she said. She was a candy striper and participated in a physicians training program in college. Her father, an adolescent psychiatrist, and her mother and sister, psych nurses, tried to push her in that direction, but pediatrics called.

“I just love the kids,” she said. “I love it when a toddler smiles at me and runs up and hugs me. I love it when a nervous kid relaxes and lets me examine them after I chat with them for a while. I love when a sad teenager talks to me privately and lets me know that they need some help and allows me to provide that. Every day I work at St. Luke’s, I feel like I help somebody.”