When the arena office building was first announced about 18 months ago, Lehigh Valley Health Network was going to be opening a Sports Medicine Center in the arena complex.
A recent article in the Morning Call now states that the hospital will operate a fitness center and training facilities for their computer network, utilized by the hospital on various campuses. Although the Morning Call reporters have been on board selling the
Transformation, they didn't write one sentence on the shift in the hospital's commitment. It's no surprise that they decided against using the 7th and Hamilton location for patients, that would be adding pain to the injury. Although St. Lukes and Lehigh Valley go toe to toe, and side by side, in locations throughout the valley, St. Lukes has decided to let Lehigh Valley have the 7th and Hamilton location without their competition. That was an easy decision.
Mike, they will have a sports medicine facility at that location along with other services. Here is the source direct from the horses mouth.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.lvhn.org/facilities_directions/lehigh_valley_health_network_one_city_center
MM, I hate to call you out. But I work at LVHN and the facility for sports medicine is a full steam ahead program. There is even a new post on our webpage promoting as such. I think the mcall was just reporting what other jobs will be had at our faculty. Here is the link to the site explaining what services will be offered by us.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.lvhn.org/facilities_directions/lehigh_valley_health_network_one_city_center
Did you see the new pop-up ads that Lehigh Valley Health Network started running about their new facility? The list of "services" to be provided are all limousine style services, no clinics for regular folks from the neighborhood. It's like an LA Fitness in disguise.
ReplyDeleteA multimillion dollar "gym facility" paid for twice by taxpayers. First on the backs of state and local taxpayers because of Lehigh Valley Health Network's tax exempt status and then second on the backs of state and local taxpayers because of the NIZ. Is there any real money in this deal?
@9:59 and 11:23, since the Sports Medicine center was announced 18 months ago LVHN has purchased the former Westfield Hospital and is promoting it as orthopedic center. We'll see how many physicians are assigned to 7th and Hamilton and how many patients are directed there. the emphasis there seems to have changed from patients to administrative offices. the location manager said, "The training facility will operate for about a year as the health system decides exactly what services to offer at the 707 Hamilton St. address,.."
ReplyDeleteMr. Molovinsky, I am sorry but you are mistaken. I can tell you that mission of the site has never changed. Please note the reference posted to our site and the MCALL.
ReplyDeleteFirst, An article from 8/23/13 on the update of construction. Please read and note the services being mentioned.
http://www.lvhn.org/lehighvalleyhealthnews/2013/08/23/construction-progresses-at-one-city-center-in-allentown-photos/
Second, Here is the original article in the MCALL from March 2012, 24 months ago. As you can tell the mission has never changed. Admin offices have always been part of the plan. From day one it has been stated that floors above levels 2 and 3 would be used for admin and clinical services. Initially the building was planned to be only 5 stories but with the expansion of the additional 3 stories to 8 we will now have the ability to bring additional administrative offices to the building. I presume this is where you maybe mislead about the mission of the building. The Sports Medicine facility did not get smaller, the building got bigger.
http://articles.mcall.com/2012-03-20/news/mc-phantoms-allentown-arena-20120320_1_hockey-arena-sports-medicine-center-new-downtown
@8:21, i detect a difference in the definition of Sports Medicine from the original announcements to now. I know what sports medicine means at the orthopedic associates behind the tilghman square shopping center. although there's an affiliated fitness center, there are doctors treating a multitude of accidents, only some sports related. the new literature suggests that there will be much less medical service there than originally implied. i'm glad to host sincere counter points such as yours. in order for web addresses to appear as links in the comments, they must be sent with the html tag code.
ReplyDeleteI have been a member of the LVPG gym facility at the Muhlenberg campus, and the facilities are clean and well-run. Free to their employees and cheap for seniors. Admission for people over 50 is with a letter from the MD attesting to good health. Seems to be a niche market - though if they're looking for a wealthy clientele downtown, they're well-positioned. I think it's a revenue source for the hospital system! (I saw profit charts in their office when I was in about eight months ago).
ReplyDeleteAlso, they're implementing a whole new electronic health record system from Epic Systems. This is a major systems change for them and I'm sure they're need to train hundreds of employees in their system over the next few years. Once the systems are switched over, perhaps part of that space can be moved over to clinical practice.
john@3:32, in all due respect judge young revealed several years ago that after taking every possible deduction, non-profit lvhn was still $80 million in the black that year; they don't need a fitness center for revenue. they also recently leased the former mack world headquarters for office space. this was a arrangement between former board member j.b. reilly and the hospital. i suspect that if reilly can find alternative tenants for the space, the hospital would rather downsize their presence at the inconvenient 7th and hamilton location.
ReplyDeleteThat was 80 million with 1.5 billion in revenue
ReplyDelete