St. Luke's University Health Network (SLUHN) is a non-profit health system based in

Bethlehem, Pennsylvania Bethlehem is a city in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, Northampton and Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, Lehigh counties in the Lehigh Valley region of eastern Pennsylvania, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, Bethle ...

. It includes 15 hospital campuses and over 300 outpatient sites across Pennsylvania and

New Jersey New Jersey is a U.S. state, state located in both the Mid-Atlantic States, Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern United States, Northeastern regions of the United States. Located at the geographic hub of the urban area, heavily urbanized Northeas ...

, employing more than 20,000 people as of 2024. The network offers

primary Primary or primaries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music Groups and labels * Primary (band), from Australia * Primary (musician), hip hop musician and record producer from South Korea * Primary Music, Israeli record label Work ...

, 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

SLUHN was founded in March 1872 to provide medical care to the region's industrial workforce, including employees of

Bethlehem Steel The Bethlehem Steel Corporation was an American steelmaking company headquartered in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. Until its closure in 2003, it was one of the world's largest steel-producing and shipbuilding companies. At the height of its success ...

. 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

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

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 acrony
PCRAFT: Pride, Caring, Respect, Accountability. Flexibility, Teamwork

Quality and Recognition

St. Luke's University Health Network has been honored with more tha
200 healthcare quality awards
reflecting its vision to achieve top decile performance in national quality measures.

Workplace Excellence

* Named
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 nationa
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 o
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 o
America's Dream Employers 2025
* Named one of th
Nation's Best Employers for New Grads by Forbes
* Named one of America's Best Employers for Women by Forbes in 2023

Clinical Excellence

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 The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is a federal agency within the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) that administers the Medicare program and works in partnership with state governments to administer ...

(CMS) ** Received th
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 ** Recognized as
Top Performer on Key Quality Measures for Heart Attack, Heart Failure, Pneumonia and Surgery

Technology and Innovation

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

St. Luke's University Health Network is a member of the Council of Teaching Hospitals and Health Systems and offer
90 medical specialties
including: * Level I Trauma ( Fountain Hill), Level II Trauma ( Easton), and Level IV ( Quakertown) Adult Trauma Center *

Bariatric surgery Bariatric surgery (also known as metabolic surgery or weight loss surgery) is a surgical procedure used to manage obesity and obesity-related conditions. Long term weight loss with bariatric surgery may be achieved through alteration of gut ho ...

Cardiology Cardiology () is the study of the heart. Cardiology is a branch of medicine that deals with disorders of the heart and the cardiovascular system. The field includes medical diagnosis and treatment of congenital heart defects, coronary artery di ...

and cardiovascular surgery. *

Gastroenterology Gastroenterology (from the Greek gastḗr- "belly", -énteron "intestine", and -logía "study of") is the branch of medicine focused on the digestive system and its disorders. The digestive system consists of the gastrointestinal tract, sometime ...

Colonoscopy Colonoscopy () or coloscopy () is a medical procedure involving the Endoscopy, endoscopic examination of the large bowel (colon) and the distal portion of the small bowel. This examination is performed using either a Charge-coupled device, CCD ...

, upper and lower endoscopic surgery,

hernia A hernia (: hernias or herniae, from Latin, meaning 'rupture') is the abnormal exit of tissue or an organ (anatomy), organ, such as the bowel, through the wall of the cavity in which it normally resides. The term is also used for the normal Devel ...

repairs, ERCP, Endoscopic ultrasound. *

Neuroscience Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions, and its disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, ...

Oncology Oncology is a branch of medicine that deals with the study, treatment, diagnosis, and prevention of cancer. A medical professional who practices oncology is an ''oncologist''. The name's Etymology, etymological origin is the Greek word ὄγ ...

Radiation oncology Radiation therapy or radiotherapy (RT, RTx, or XRT) is a treatment using ionizing radiation, generally provided as part of cancer therapy to either kill or control the growth of malignant cells. It is normally delivered by a linear particle a ...

chemotherapy Chemotherapy (often abbreviated chemo, sometimes CTX and CTx) is the type of cancer treatment that uses one or more anti-cancer drugs (list of chemotherapeutic agents, chemotherapeutic agents or alkylating agents) in a standard chemotherapy re ...

, laser therapy *

Orthopaedics Orthopedic surgery or orthopedics ( alternative spelling orthopaedics) is the branch of surgery concerned with conditions involving the musculoskeletal system. Orthopedic surgeons use both surgical and nonsurgical means to treat musculoskeletal ...

Otorhinolaryngology Otorhinolaryngology ( , abbreviated ORL and also known as otolaryngology, otolaryngology–head and neck surgery (ORL–H&N or OHNS), or ear, nose, and throat (ENT)) is a surgical subspecialty within medicine that deals with the surgical an ...

Pediatrics Pediatrics (American English) also spelled paediatrics (British English), is the branch of medicine that involves the medical care of infants, children, Adolescence, adolescents, and young adults. In the United Kingdom, pediatrics covers many o ...

Perinatal Prenatal development () involves the development of the embryo and of the fetus during a viviparous animal's gestation. Prenatal development starts with fertilization, in the germinal stage of embryonic development, and continues in fetal deve ...

Robotic Robotics is the interdisciplinary study and practice of the design, construction, operation, and use of robots. Within mechanical engineering, robotics is the design and construction of the physical structures of robots, while in computer s ...

and

Minimally-invasive surgery Minimally invasive procedures (also known as minimally invasive surgeries) encompass surgical techniques that limit the size of incisions needed, thereby reducing wound healing time, associated pain, and risk of infection. Surgery by definition ...

Radiology Radiology ( ) is the medical specialty that uses medical imaging to diagnose diseases and guide treatment within the bodies of humans and other animals. It began with radiography (which is why its name has a root referring to radiation), but tod ...

Podiatry Podiatry ( ), also know as podiatric medicine and surgery ( ), is a branch of medicine devoted to the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disorders of the foot, ankle and lower limb. The healthcare professional is known as a podiatrist. The US ...

Women's Health Women's health is an example of population health, where health is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity". Often treated ...

breast cancer surgery The breasts are two prominences located on the upper ventral region of the torso among humans and other primates. Both sexes develop breasts from the same embryological tissues. The relative size and development of the breasts is a major sec ...

Locations

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

Grand View Partnership (2025)
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.

References

External links

*
St. Luke's University Health Network at Linkedin
{{DEFAULTSORT:St. Luke's University Health Network 1872 establishments in Pennsylvania Bethlehem, Pennsylvania Healthcare in Pennsylvania Hospital networks in the United States Hospitals in the Lehigh Valley Medical and health organizations based in Pennsylvania Trauma centers