Upper Perkiomen Valley Chamber of Commerce News Newswire

St. Luke’s among Most Socially Responsible in Nation

Wed, 24 Jun 2026 12:39:29 GMT

St. Luke's University Health Network has earned an “A” grade on the 2026-27 Lown Hospitals Index for Social Responsibility, placing it among the top health systems nationally for overall commitment to health equity, value and outcomes.

More than 3,600 U.S. hospitals and 300 systems are included in the ranking by the Lown Institute, an independent health care think tank in Massachusetts.

In addition, St. Luke’s was #1 among health systems in the nation for patient outcomes and among the top 10 for social responsibility and the top 10 for patient satisfaction.

“This report’s findings reflect St. Luke’s dedication to expand access to our Network’s world-class, outcomes-driven quality care,” said St. Luke’s Vice President of Community Health Rajika Reed, PhD., MPH, M.Ed. “As the Lehigh Valley’s only locally based, independent health care network, proudly caring for those in need for over 150 years, we are fully committed to and invested in advancing the wellbeing of our communities. Truly equitable health systems provide support and access to exceptional care while reaching all sectors of the community.”

As a health system, St. Luke’s received straight A grades in all of the major categories:

Social Responsibility
Health Equity
Value of Care
Patient Outcomes
Clinical Outcomes
Patient Safety
Patient Satisfaction
Inclusivity
Cost Efficiency

Unlike traditional hospital rankings that focus heavily on prestige and technology, the Lown Index includes measures of how well hospitals serve their communities, including how equitably care is delivered, how hospitals invest in their surrounding populations, and whether patients receive high-value care that avoids unnecessary procedures.

“The best hospitals aren't just clinically excellent; they're deeply committed to the communities they serve and work hard to ensure all patients get the care they need. The Lown Index exists to ensure those hospitals are noticed and celebrated,” said Vikas Saini, MD, president of the Lown Institute.

Seven of St. Luke's hospitals achieved Honor Roll status.:

St. Luke's University Hospital (which includes Bethlehem, Allentown and Sacred Heart campuses)
St. Luke's Easton Campus
St. Luke's Miners Campus
St. Luke's Upper Bucks Campus
St. Luke's Warren Campus
St. Luke's Carbon Campus
St. Luke’s Grand View Campus

Fewer than 5% of hospitals evaluated received Honor Roll status, placing these hospitals among a select group of top performers delivering exceptional care while advancing health equity and value.

Other highlights include:

St. Luke's Easton Campus ranked #1 out of 115 acute care hospitals in Pennsylvania and 8th nationally on the social responsibility metric. The hospital also ranked #1 in the state for health equity.
St. Luke's Anderson Campus ranked #1 in Pennsylvania for patient outcomes and patient safety, as well as among the top five for value of care, avoiding overuse and cost efficiency metrics.

From Vietnam to Bethlehem--St. Luke’s Family Medicine Doctor Dedicates Career to Caring for the Underserved and Training Physicians

Tue, 09 Jun 2026 16:35:06 GMT

In 2003, soon after starting her family medicine residency training at St. Luke’s Bethlehem Campus, Nguyet-Cam Vu (pronounced Wit Cam Voo) Lam, MD, set her heart on spending her career with St. Luke’s, taking care of patients and training young physicians.

At St. Luke’s, Dr. Lam, who goes by the informal first name Cam, found the kind of organizational culture that matched her own values.

“St. Luke’s is so welcoming, and its mission of caring for and about people aligns directly with mine,” she explains.

Today, as program director of the family medicine residency at St. Luke’s Bethlehem since 2018, and family physician at Star Community Health, Dr. Lam is in her 23^rd year with the Network, which has been ranked by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as the nation's top health system for quality, safety and patient experience.

Earlier this year Dr. Lam was named the Pennsylvania Academy of Family Physicians 2026 Family Physician of the Year. The award recognizes an extraordinary doctor who demonstrates a commitment to the physician-patient relationship, provides comprehensive, compassionate patient care, demonstrates leadership in her specialty and maintains the highest ethical standards as a clinician and teacher.

“You epitomize what is best about Family Medicine and St. Luke’s,” her colleague Robert Langan, MD, program director of St. Luke’s Sacred Heart Family Medicine Program, said to her recently. With her characteristic humility, Dr. Lam responded, “It’s a team effort.”

Dr. Lam’s humanitarian values had developed from growing up in a family that immigrated to California from Vietnam when she was 16. They struggled to gain access to health services, especially for her brother who had to go to the emergency room without insurance for medical issues. “We were very poor and uninsured,” she explains, adding they often experienced food insecurity and had to rely on a local church to be able to eat.

This inspired her to pursue medicine so she could take care of the underserved while training future generations of primary care physicians to join or succeed her. Since 2018, St. Luke’s has hired an average 64% of graduating St. Luke’s Bethlehem family medicine residents.

After earning a bachelor’s degree from UCLA, Dr. Lam completed medical school at Kigezi International School of Medicine, Cambridge, England, and Uganda, Africa. She then matched at St. Luke’s, allowing her to live near her future-husband’s home in Philadelphia. The learning and clinical practice during residency were rigorous, and the support from faculty physicians and fellow residents was genuine and kind. Initially, Dr. Lam had thought she would return to California to be close to her family. But the calling to fulfill her dream of training the residents and caring for the community at St. Luke’s was too strong for her to resist. 2026 marks her 20^th anniversary in academic medicine.

In addition to her teaching responsibilities, Dr. Lam provides routine, preventive, chronic, and acute care to patients. She also delivers babies, which brings her great satisfaction and gives her the opportunity to develop long-term trusting relationships with her patients, treating many from birth to death. She still takes care of a young man whom she delivered early in her residency, who is now a student at Lehigh University.

“I often have three to four generations of families as patients, so I get to know them at all ages and life stages.”

Some of them are Vietnamese immigrants who, like her own family, seek medical care with challenges in social determinants of health. She speaks their language and knows their customs and family dynamics and understands their health needs and challenges at various stages, all which helps her provide compassionate, effective care.

Dr. Lam, 53, hopes to retire some day from St. Luke’s but is in no rush. She’s passionate about training future doctors practicing full-spectrum family medicine, delivering babies and caring for patients, alongside her colleagues.

She and her husband, Steven Nguyen, live in Center Valley with their three grown daughters—Grace, Christy and Abby--who all are studying pre-medicine with the hope of becoming doctors, says Dr. Lam.

She hopes one will choose family medicine as her specialty at St. Luke’s, so Dr. Lam can pass on her knowledge to her and even work with her side-by-side one day. “I’m privileged to work here with wonderful people,” she says. “Our patients, colleagues and residents--we are all part of our extended family.”

Capital Blue Cross, St. Luke’s University Health Network Tout Affordable, High-Quality Care with Renewed Collaboration

Thu, 04 Jun 2026 14:59:53 GMT

ALLENTOWN, Pa. – Capital Blue Cross is launching a new health plan option in collaboration with St. Luke’s University Health Network that will help Lehigh Valley employers better manage health care costs while ensuring their employees receive high-quality care from one of the nation’s top-performing health systems.

Valley Advantage EPO will help employers control rising health care expenses. It aligns the strength of Capital Blue Cross’ benefits and care management programs with St. Luke’s network of outstanding providers, which ranks No. 1 in the United States for quality, safety and patient experience, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

“Capital Blue Cross and St. Luke’s share a mission to put people first – delivering exceptional service, expanding access to high-quality care, and strengthening the health of the communities we serve,” said Todd Shamash, president and CEO of Capital Blue Cross. “With St. Luke’s nationally recognized as No. 1 in quality, safety and patient experience, this collaboration gives Lehigh Valley employers and their employees confidence they’re getting outstanding care, close to home, at an affordable cost.”

The plan is now available to employers in Lehigh and Northampton counties with more than 100 employees and will be available to companies with fewer than 100 employees in 2027.

“St. Luke’s has long been recognized for delivering exceptional care at a lower cost than competitors,” said Rick Anderson, president and CEO of St. Luke’s University Health Network. “The collaboration between Capital Blue Cross and St. Luke’s allows us to offer employers in the Lehigh Valley a plan that enables access to high-quality care that is more affordable.”

With employer-sponsored medical and Rx coverage projected to increase by 8.4% in 2026, Valley Advantage EPO gives employers a clearer path to managing those costs with rates that are lower than Capital’s standard PPO plan.

Other key features of the EPO plan include:

A value-based care model that prioritizes care quality, outcomes and efficiency.
Simplified access to care across St. Luke’s network of 16 hospital campuses and more than 350 provider office locations.
No referrals required for in-network services.
Wellness credits for eligible businesses with more than 100 employees.

Employers looking to decrease costs while ensuring their employees have access to high-quality care should contact their Capital Blue Cross account executive or health plan consultant.

Expanding the Meaning of ‘Excellence’ Through Cancer Screening

Wed, 03 Jun 2026 15:41:42 GMT

Cancer screenings are critical for preventing and treating disease, yet people too often lack access to these services. Screening also represents an essential gateway to better community health.

To meet this mission, Jesse Keiper, a member of St. Luke’s Cancer team, organized a free cancer screening and prevention fair that highlighted St. Luke’s comprehensive commitment to care—from detection to treatment to continuing wellness.

Jesse, an oncology prevention and advocacy specialist who has been with St. Luke’s for more than a decade, coordinated the inaugural screening fair in February at the St. Luke’s Upper Bucks Campus. Despite the bitter cold, more than 40 screenings for skin and head and neck cancers were conducted. Attendees also learned about screening and prevention for other types of cancer and toured the Upper Bucks Center for Hope & Healing—a one-of-a-kind patient-centered space for support throughout the cancer journey—where oncology dieticians made smoothies and answered questions about nutrition.

Jesse organized the screening fair as part of her capstone project for a Master’s of Social Work from Moravian University. She designed the event to convene multidisciplinary cancer treatment teams around the shared goals of exceptional care and positive patient experiences, creating an opportunity to showcase St. Luke’s growing Centers of Excellence for cancer treatment.

The Centers of Excellence initiative is intended to encourage and foster communication and coordination among Cancer team members as they work to provide personal and seamless patient care. Currently there are four Centers of Excellence; the number will soon expand to 11 to include all disease-specific cancer programs at St. Luke’s.

“It’s not just about being ‘excellent’ in the clinical setting, but it's how we deliver care and how we work together as a team,” said Kerianne Pollinger, Director of Oncology Excellence and Accreditation at. St. Luke’s. Pollinger has been Jesse’s field supervisor for two years and encouraged her to coordinate St. Luke’s screening fair plans. Jesse’s work also underscores St. Luke’s mission to identify and cultivate talented employees who live in the communities they serve.

“Jesse is homegrown St. Luke’s talent and reflects what makes our St. Luke’s family so special,” Pollinger said. “We grow our own leaders, and we approach that responsibility with the same intention and care that we bring to our patients.” Jesse is organizing the next St. Luke’s cancer screening and prevention fair for August 1^st from 9 a.m.-noon at St. Luke’s Sacred Heart Campus in Allentown. The event is free, and anyone can walk in, or accompany family members, to get screened and to learn more about how prevention and early detection can save lives. “It’s about that one community member who builds trust and rapport with us. Therefore, they’re going to trust the system and come to these appointments,” Jesse said. “It’s about relationship-building in the community.”

Photo caption (from left): Dr. Eleanor Harris, MD, Vice Chair of Oncology and Chief of Radiation Oncology, and a patient during a cancer screening.

LifeSpan School & Day Care Are Now Accepting Enrollment For The Pre-K Counts Program

Wed, 18 Mar 2026 18:14:52 GMT

LifeSpan School and Day Care are not accepting students for the Pre-K Counts Program. This is a great free program for families with eligible 3-4 yr old children. Please see flyer for more details.