Upper Perkiomen Valley Chamber of Commerce News Newswire

New St. Luke’s Heart Hospital Opens

Fri, 02 Oct 2026 18:42:28 GMT

St. Luke's University Health Network on Friday opened the new St. Luke's Heart Hospital at St. Luke's Anderson Campus.

A ribbon cutting ceremony at the Bethlehem Township facility was attended by roughly 200 people. Among the speakers at the event was St. Luke’s President & CEO Rick Anderson, who noted the significance of opening the Heart Hospital during United States’ 250th anniversary year.

“The new St. Luke’s Heart Hospital stands as an essential expression of what American ingenuity, innovation and determination can achieve,” Anderson said. “Like every hospital built by St. Luke’s, it was constructed with American steel with an unwavering commitment to excellence. Combining world-class technology, leading-edge design and the expertise of our exceptional clinicians, this facility reflects St. Luke's and our nation’s proud tradition of pioneering advances in health care. Most importantly, it ensures that patients throughout our region have access to some of the finest cardiovascular care available anywhere in the world, right here in the Lehigh Valley.”

The $252 million Heart Hospital is the largest construction project in St. Luke's more than 150-year history, both in dollar figure and square footage.

The five-story, approximately 355,000-square-foot facility is seamlessly integrated into St. Luke’s Anderson Campus. A central corridor on each of the upper floors stretches 330 feet — roughly the length of a football field.

Construction began in 2024 and has employed over a thousand skilled workers. Once fully operational, the Heart Hospital will support hundreds of permanent, family-sustaining healthcare jobs.

The new facility will provide patients with convenient access to the full spectrum of St. Luke's nationally recognized cardiovascular services, including four dedicated heart operating rooms, one hybrid operating room, ten advanced interventional suites for cardiac catheterization, electrophysiology and interventional radiology, in addition to a specially designed cardiac intensive care unit providing high-acuity heart patients advanced specialized care.

“This Heart Hospital represents one of the most significant investments in cardiovascular care our region has ever seen,” said Raymond Durkin, MD, St. Luke’s Cardiovascular Services Chairman. “When I look at this building, I don’t just see a hospital. I see lives that will be saved, families that will have more time together and a commitment to delivering world-class cardiovascular services close to home for generations to come.”

Additionally, the Heart Hospital will be fully equipped with the latest, most innovative equipment and technologies to best treat our cardiac patients. This includes state-of-the-art imaging equipment to visualize and assess the most intricate heart issues, heart-lung machines to pump blood during open-heart surgeries and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machines to provide patients with continuous, long term cardiopulmonary support.

The Heart Hospital will also serve as a Siemens international show site for cardiac imaging and will attract physicians and other health care leaders from around the globe to experience the highest standard of cardiovascular care in action.

Despite its size and complexity, the project was completed at a relatively low per-square-foot cost by industry standards, a testament to St. Luke's extensive experience in hospital construction. In recent years, St. Luke's has built five full-service acute care hospitals — more than any other health system in Pennsylvania.

Designed to support learning and innovation, the Heart Hospital furthers St. Luke's educational mission through expanded teaching space including a new cardiac fellowship program. It also incorporates numerous design innovations improving efficiency and enhancing patients' experience.

The facility also includes features that will improve flow and otherwise benefit the broader Anderson Campus, including a new and larger cafeteria and a rooftop helipad. The helipad will facilitate the rapid transport of patients to the campus trauma center, which this month earned the highest-level trauma accreditation reserved for the most advanced trauma centers.

“The new Heart Hospital is a transformative investment in the future of health care for our region, nearly doubling the number of in-patient beds at the Anderson Campus to meet a growing demand for St. Luke’s high-quality services,” said Ed Nawrocki, president of St. Luke’s East Region and the Anderson Campus. “For 15 years, Anderson Campus has grown alongside the communities we serve, expanding access to advanced, high-quality care. The Heart Hospital builds on that legacy by bringing world-class cardiovascular expertise, state-of-the-art technology and an exceptional patient experience together under one roof. It reinforces what our patients already know: They can receive the most advanced heart care available anywhere, right here close to home.”

Located on a 500-acre campus overlooking the Lehigh River, St. Luke's Anderson Campus opened 15 years ago as Pennsylvania's first new full-service acute-care hospital in four decades.

Since then, the campus has continued to expand to meet the region's healthcare needs. The original campus included a state-of-the-art cancer center and medical office building. In 2017, the addition of a $26 million Specialty Pavilion added new specialty services and an Ambulatory Surgery Center. In 2020, the $90 million Women & Babies Pavilion opened, introducing labor and delivery services, a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), graduate medical education space and a simulation teaching center, doubling the size of the existing hospital.

With its additional 140 beds, the Heart Hospital nearly doubles the Anderson Campus’ inpatient capacity.

The Anderson Campus is also home to the St. Luke's Rodale Institute Organic Farm, which supplies fresh produce to St. Luke's hospitals, and an extensive network of popular walking trails. During the summer and fall, the campus's iconic sunflower and cosmos fields attract thousands of visitors from across the region.

MCCC’s Hospitality Institute Opens Student-Operated Bistro 1964 and Bakery 340 For Fall Semester

Fri, 02 Oct 2026 13:43:41 GMT

Sept. 30, 2026, Blue Bell, Pa.— Two new food options are now open for community members, students and employees this fall inside Montgomery County Community College’s Hospitality Institute on the Blue Bell Campus, 340 DeKalb Pike.

Bistro 1964 and Bakery 340 are the educational restaurant and bakery operated seasonally by students in the Culinary Arts and Baking & Pastry Arts programs. Students plan, prepare, and serve all food and beverages as part of this capstone experience, applying techniques, skills, and procedures learned throughout their academic coursework.

Bistro 1964 is open for service to the community on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. through Thursday, Dec. 3. Reservations are required through OpenTable or by visiting the webpage at mc3.edu/hospitality.

Lunch features a Prix-Fixe menu that includes guest choice of first and second courses, chef’s dessert selection, and a beverage for $26 (plus 6% sales tax). Pizza may be ordered for takeout at the counter during service hours, while supplies last, for $10 (plus 6% sales tax). Bistro 1964 only accepts credit and debit cards.

Bakery 340 is open Wednesdays from 10 a.m. until noon, while supplies last, through Wednesday, Dec. 9. Customers can choose from a variety of pastries including croissants, danish, muffins, scones, donuts, cake slices, and cookies made from seasonal ingredients baked fresh by students. Coffee is brewed by local roaster ?Backyard Beans. The bakery is cash only.

MCCC’s Culinary Arts program prepares students for positions in food service operations, such as hotels and resorts, restaurants, healthcare facilities, country clubs and catering. Through hands-on instruction, students gain the practical kitchen applications of quality food preparation and knowledge needed for success in the culinary industry.

In MCCC’s Baking & Pastry Arts program, students learn the fundamental knowledge and advanced skills necessary for success in the baking and pastry industry. Through hands-on instruction, students are prepared for entry- to mid-level positions in bakeries, country clubs, hotels and resorts.

For more information about Bistro 1964 and Bakery 340, contact the Hospitality Institute at culinary@mc3.edu.

Photo: Student-operated Bistro1964 is now open for service to the community on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. through Dec. 3 in the Hospitality Institute on Montgomery County Community College’s Blue Bell Campus. Bakery 340 is open Wednesdays from 10 a.m. through noon, or while supplies last, now through Wednesday, Dec. 9. Photo by Linda Johnson

Record Fourth Global Award Establishes St. Luke’s as America’s Leader in Hospital Innovation

Wed, 30 Sep 2026 13:17:13 GMT

St. Luke’s University Health Network has earned the 2026 HIMSS Davies Award of Excellence, becoming the first and only health care organization in the world to receive the prestigious honor four times. The unprecedented achievement—following St. Luke’s awards in 2019, 2020 and 2023—establishes the Network as America’s leader in hospital digital innovation.

The Davies Award recognizes those health care organizations that do far more than merely adopt new technology. It recognizes those that use it in innovative, measurable and sustainable ways to make care safer, improve outcomes and create a better patient experience. No other health system has demonstrated that capability often and consistently enough to earn the award four times.

Presented by HIMSS, the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society, the Davies Award is one of health care’s most respected honors. It showcases organizations whose thoughtful, globally innovative applications of information and technology redefine evidence-based best practices and produce significant improvements in clinical care.

“No other health care organization in the world has won four Davies Awards. That distinction makes clear what our patients experience every day: St. Luke’s is setting the national standard for using innovation to deliver safer, smarter and more effective care,” St. Luke’s Chief Information Officer Chad Brisendine said.

Added St. Luke’s Chief Quality Officer Donna Sabol: “Our competitive advantage is not technology alone. It is our ability to combine technology, data and clinical expertise to achieve measurable results for the people and communities we serve.”

St. Luke’s earned its fourth Davies Award for integrating predictive analytics and electronic health record clinical decision support into everyday care. The winning initiatives helped clinicians recognize deteriorating patients earlier, protect patients receiving a powerful antibiotic and standardize suicide-risk assessment and interventions across a multisite health care system. Together, the results show how St. Luke’s turns innovation into lives saved, harm prevented and better value.

St. Luke’s received the 2026 Davies Award for three projects that improved patient care:

Identifying patients whose condition is getting worse: A digital tool helped care teams recognize warning signs sooner. This reduced emergency “code” events by 25.8%, cut unexpected transfers to intensive care after a rapid response by 31.9% and helped save an additional 55 lives over three years.
Making a powerful antibiotic safer: A new way of monitoring vancomycin treatment reduced the relative risk of related kidney injury by nearly 60%. It is expected to prevent about 2,022 harmful drug-related events each year and avoid an estimated $16 million in annual costs.
Improving suicide-risk screening and safety measures: St. Luke’s created a consistent approach to assessing suicide risk and matching patients with the appropriate level of monitoring and support across its hospitals. Use of the recommended safety measures increased from 50% to 73%, while an estimated $2.93 million in costs was avoided without reducing patient safety.

“Winning once demonstrates innovation. Becoming the first organization in the world to win four times demonstrates a culture of continuous innovation,” Brisendine said. “This achievement reflects years of collaboration, trust and discipline among our clinical, operational, informatics and IT teams. Most importantly, it reflects their shared commitment to turning technology and data into better care for every patient.”

2026 Small Business Credit Survey

Mon, 28 Sep 2026 18:47:35 GMT

The Federal Reserve’s 2026 Small Business Credit Survey is now open!

Your voice shapes the policies and programs that affect your business. Owners and key financial decisionmakers of for-profit businesses, please share your recent operational and financial experiences, about whether and how you use debt, and more.

Answers to these questions contribute to data that directly inform the Fed, federal government agencies, service providers, policymakers, and others.

The survey is open to businesses currently in operation, those recently closed, and those about to launch. All responses are confidential.

Take the 12-minute survey now: https://www.greaterphlgrowth.com/sbcs.

The survey closes November 13, 2026.

MCCC Baseball's Golf Outing Fundraiser

Mon, 28 Sep 2026 18:15:22 GMT

Spend a day on the Butter Valley Golf Course supporting the Montgomery County Community College Baseball program. Onsite check in will start at 7am.

For more information, please visit

https://www.zeffy.com/en-US/ticketing/mccc-baseballs-golf-outing-fundraiser

Upper Perk Halloween Parade

Mon, 21 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMT

The Upper Perk Halloween Parade is coming! Get ready for a night of Halloween fun on Saturday, October 25th at 6 PM!

The parade will kick off in Red Hill, travel through Pennsburg, and finish in East Greenville.

Bring the family, dress up, and find a spot along the route! Be sure to arrive early to grab a good seat — this is always a fun community tradition!

For parade details and more information, visit: About | Upper Perk Halloween Parade

St. Mark's To Host Their 2nd Annual Trunk Or Treat Event

Thu, 10 Sep 2026 12:12:06 GMT

Trunk or Treat is a safe and enjoyable way for children and families to celebrate Halloween. Local businesses and community members decorate their car trunks and distribute treats to the children who attend. This event not only provides a fun experience for the kids but also offers a fantastic opportunity for local organizations to engage with the community and showcase their support.

We would be delighted to have you join us by decorating a trunk and providing treats for the children. Your participation will help make this event a memorable experience for everyone involved. Additionally, it’s a great way to connect with local families.

Please let us know if you are interested in participating by October 8, 2026. Please respond to this email or call 610-657-9904 for more details or to confirm your participation. We look forward to your positive response and to seeing you at the event.

Event Details:

Date: October 18, 2026
Time: 2:00-4:00 PM
Location: St. Mark’s Lutheran Church, 81 Main St., Pennsburg, PA