St. Luke's University Health Network
 | |
| Industry | Healthcare, hospitals |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1872 |
| Headquarters | , U.S. |
| Services | Teaching hospitals, Primary, secondary, and tertiary care centers; ambulatory clinics |
Number of employees | 20,000 (2024) |
| Website | www |
St. Luke's University Health Network (SLUHN) is a non-profit health system based in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. It includes 15 hospital campuses and over 300 outpatient sites across Pennsylvania and New Jersey, employing more than 20,000 people as of 2024.
The network offers primary, secondary, and tertiary care and serves as a teaching and research institution through its affiliations with Temple University School of Medicine and other educational partners.
History
[edit]SLUHN was founded in March 1872 to provide medical care to the region's industrial workforce, including employees of Bethlehem Steel. The first patient was admitted in 1873. Reverend Cortlandt Whitehead, Rector of the Episcopal Church of the Nativity in South Bethlehem, was instrumental in founding the hospital. With support from the Bishop Thorpe School in Fountain Hill, Tinsley Jeter helped secure the charter from the state legislature.
In 1875, the hospital moved to its current location in Fountain Hill. After philanthropist Asa Packer died in 1878, he left the hospital $300,000 in Lehigh Valley Railroad stock. The St. Luke's School of Nursing opened in 1884.
The hospital expanded in the 1990s, acquiring Quakertown Community Hospital and Allentown Osteopathic Medical Center. It was reorganized as a hospital network in 1998. In 2006, a clinical campus of Temple University School of Medicine was established at St. Luke's Bethlehem, followed by the launch of a four-year medical school program in 2009.
SLUHN celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2022 and opened St. Luke's Children's Hospital the following year.
In 2025 Laura O was recognized for her amazing care as a Registered Nurse through the award of a Bravo, a trademark St. Luke's certificate.
About
[edit]St. Luke's University Hospital is a non-profit, tertiary-care, teaching hospital. The networks service area includes 11 counties in two states: Lehigh, Northampton, Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Montgomery, Monroe, Schuykill, and Luzerne counties in Pennsylvania and Warren and Hunterdon counties in New Jersey. St. Luke's operates the largest network of trauma centers in Pennsylvania, with the Bethlehem Campus being home to St. Luke's Children's Hospital.
Organization Structure & Mission
[edit]SLUHN's mission is to:
- Care for the sick and injured regardless of ability to pay
- Promote healthy lifestyles
- Train health professionals
- Improve community health through innovation and service delivery
Its core values are represented by the acronym PCRAFT: Pride, Caring, Respect, Accountability. Flexibility, Teamwork.
Quality and Recognition
[edit]St. Luke's University Health Network has been honored with more than 200 healthcare quality awards, reflecting its vision to achieve top decile performance in national quality measures.
Workplace Excellence
[edit]- Named a Top Workplace by the Morning Call for three consecutive years (2023-2025), the only healthcare institution in the Lehigh Valley to receive this designation
- Recognized as a national Top Workplace by USA Today for three consecutive years (2023-2025)
- Ranked 26th out of 2,251 organizations across all industries in 2025
- Ranked 1st in the Hospitals and Health Systems category in 2025
- The only healthcare system in Pennsylvania to receive this award in 2025
- Ranked 1st in Pennsylvania among all industries
- Named one of America's Best Large Employers by Forbes in 2025, ranking in the top 20 overall and #1 healthcare employer in Pennsylvania
- Recognized on Forbes' inaugural list of America's Dream Employers 2025
- Named one of the Nation's Best Employers for New Grads by Forbes
- Named one of America's Best Employers for Women by Forbes in 2023
Clinical Excellence
[edit]- Fortune/PINC AI™ 100 Top Hospitals - 11th consecutive year (2025)
- St. Luke's University Health Network was named to the Premier's 2025 Fortune/PINC AI™ 100 Top Hospitals list
- Individual campuses have also received recognition:
- St. Luke's Anderson Campus: Named among the 20 Best Teaching Hospitals for the seventh time
- St. Luke's Upper Bucks/Quakertown Campus: Named for the third time in the Small Community Hospital category
- St. Luke's Warren Campus: First-time recipient in the Small Community Hospital category
- Leapfrog Hospital Safety Grades
- Majority of St. Luke's hospitals received "A" grades for patient safety as of Fall 2023
- Six hospitals (Allentown, Anderson, Bethlehem, Carbon, Easton, and Warren) named Leapfrog Top Hospitals
- Two endoscopy centers (Buxmont and Twin Rivers) among only 27 Leapfrog Top Ambulatory Surgery Centers in the U.S.
- Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS)
- Received the highest possible quality rating of five stars
- Only health network in the Lehigh Valley to receive this highest rating
- Newsweek World's Best Hospitals
- Named one of the "World's Best" hospitals for five consecutive years
- Ranked 7th overall in Pennsylvania and top-ranked in the Lehigh Valley
- Cardiovascular Excellence
- Named to Becker's Hospital Review "100 hospitals and health systems with great heart programs"
- Ranked among the nation's 50 Top Cardiovascular Hospitals™ by Fortune and PINC AI™ for the eighth time
- St. Luke's Bethlehem earned a three-star rating from the Society of Thoracic Surgeons
- Designated as a Blue Distinction Center+ for Cardiac Care by Blue Cross Blue Shield
- American College of Cardiology (ACC) Chest Pain Center with Primary PCI Accreditation
- Society for Vascular Surgery's Vascular Quality Initiative (SVS VQI)
- Bethlehem and Allentown campuses received the highest possible three-star rating
- Only facilities in the Mid-Atlantic region to receive this highest rating
- The Joint Commission
Technology and Innovation
[edit]HIMSS Analytics Stage 7 Destination
- First network in Lehigh Valley to earn this prestigious designation at all hospitals
- St. Luke's Warren Campus is the first hospital in New Jersey to achieve Stage 7
- Less than 5% of U.S. hospitals have reached Stage 7, the highest level on HIMSS Analytics' scale
Specialties
[edit]St. Luke's University Health Network is a member of the Council of Teaching Hospitals and Health Systems and offers 90 medical specialties, including:
- Level I Trauma (Fountain Hill), Level II Trauma (Easton), and Level IV (Quakertown) Adult Trauma Center
- Bariatric surgery
- Cardiology and cardiovascular surgery.
- Gastroenterology: Colonoscopy, upper and lower endoscopic surgery, hernia repairs, ERCP, Endoscopic ultrasound.
- Neuroscience
- Oncology: Radiation oncology, chemotherapy, laser therapy
- Orthopaedics
- Otorhinolaryngology
- Pediatrics
- Perinatal
- Robotic and Minimally-invasive surgery
- Radiology
- Podiatry
- Women's Health: breast cancer surgery
Locations
[edit]
St. Luke's University Health Network operates 15 hospitals:
- St. Luke's University Hospital – Fountain Hill (Bethlehem)
- Temple/St. Luke's School of Medicine – Bethlehem
- St. Luke's Anderson Campus – Bethlehem Township
- St. Luke's Allentown Campus – Allentown
- St. Luke's Sacred Heart Campus – Allentown
- St. Luke's Upper Bucks Campus – Quakertown
- St. Luke's Quakertown Campus – Quakertown
- St. Luke's Warren Campus – Phillipsburg, NJ
- St. Luke's Easton Campus – Easton
- St. Luke's Monroe Campus – Stroudsburg
- St. Luke's Lehighton Campus – Lehighton
- St. Luke's Miners Campus – Coaldale
- Geisinger St. Luke's Hospital – Orwigsburg
- St. Luke's Orthopedic Hospital – West End, Allentown
- St. Luke's Penn Foundation Campus – Sellersville
Recent Developments
[edit]In April 2025, SLUHN and Grand View Health signed a definitive partnership agreement. Grand View Health, founded in 1913 in Bucks County, is a nonprofit health system with over 2,000 employees. The partnership is expected to close by late 2025, expanding SLUHN's reach in Bucks and Montgomery counties.
