Lehigh Valley Health Network broke ground this week for a new hospital in Lower Macungie Township, at the border with Macungie Borough, to help meet increasing demand for accessible, convenient ER and inpatient care.

Lehigh Valley Hospital (LVH)–Macungie is expected to open by the end of 2023.

The new hospital is planned for a new health care campus at the former Weis Market site at 3369 Route 100.

A medical office building – the Health Center at Macungie – also will be part of the project. The new hospital is a type of facility informally known in the health care industry as a neighborhood hospital, with a full-service ER and a limited number of inpatient beds. The footprint, at about 20,000 square feet, is smaller than other LVHN hospitals in the region such as LVH–Cedar Crest, LVH–Muhlenberg and LVH–Hecktown Oaks.

The hospital will be a licensed and accredited acute care hospital, open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, housed in a state-of-the-art facility. Patients requiring surgery or higher levels of care will be stabilized and transferred to other, larger LVHN hospitals as needed.

Other in-house hospital services will include lab, imaging and pharmacy. Imaging services, including X-ray, ultrasound, CT scan and MRI, also will be offered on an outpatient basis.

The Health Center at Macungie, at about 30,000 square feet, will house a variety of medical services, including HNL Lab Medicine, Lehigh Valley Physician Group (LVPG) family medicine, orthopedics, cardiology and pediatrics practices. In addition, the health center will offer outpatient adult rehabilitation and cardiac and vascular diagnostic testing.