St. Luke’s University Health Network announced it will add a 175,000-square-foot patient care tower to its Monroe County Campus in response to the rising demand for the network’s nationally recognized health care services, said Don Seiple, president of St. Luke’s Monroe Campus.

“The $85 million four-story addition will double the size of the existing hospital, and meet the continuous demand for our medical services,” he said.

“This growth reflects the confidence our Monroe County neighbors have placed in our providers, a trust we hold sacred.”

The addition will be built on the east side of the campus and will house general medical-surgical with 36 beds, additional operating and procedure space and expanded outpatient programs, as well as shell space for future development. The parking will be expanded as well.

The tower’s project is “a timely, well-planned and critical investment that will increase our population’s access to high-quality care that it needs and deserves,” said Douglas Degler, MD, St. Luke’s Monroe Chief of Medicine.

Groundbreaking for construction is slated for spring 2022, with the opening of the addition planned for early 2024.

The project will employ 250 construction workers. It will also create 80 new permanent family sustaining jobs, with more to come later as the shell space is occupied.

Located just off Route 611, Stroudsburg, St. Luke’s Monroe Campus welcomed its first patients in 2016. This 180,000-square-foot hospital with four stories features private patient rooms including beds for critical care patients, a large and efficient emergency room, helipad, state-of-the-art operating rooms, a cardiac catheterization lab and the most modern diagnostic technology.

St. Luke’s Monroe Campus is part of the St. Luke’s University Health System which earned Medicare’s five- and four-star ratings (the highest) for quality, efficiency and patient satisfaction. St. Luke’s Monroe Campus is a Level IV trauma center and has earned the Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval for stroke care.