$31.6M in expenses

Lehigh valley physician group - hazleton (LVPG-h) was established in 2006 as an affiliate of the lehigh valley hospital - hazleton (previously known as hazleton general hospital). As a non-profit corporation which supports both the lehigh valley hospital - hazleton (LVH-h) and lehigh valley health network, LVPG-h offers physician practices in cardiology, family and internal medicine, hematology and oncology, endocrinology, infectious diseases, pulmonology, neurology, general and specialty surgery, orthopedics, pediatrics, physiatry, and urology.LVPG-h is dedicated to serving our patients through the delivery of high quality and exceptional service.with a current compliment of over 40 physicians and over 30 advanced practice clinicians, LVPG-h operates as a single entity with services provided at numerous locations within the tri-county area. Continued recruitment and growth are a focus, with the purpose of delivering the best resources and services to the community. During fy24, LVPG-h practices had greater than 208,000 patient visits.patient care programs:LVPG-h offers a continuum of health care promotion, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment to the community. Outpatient services are provided at locations throughout the region and are a part of a healthcare network established by LVPG-h and LVH-h to meet the medical and surgical needs of the residents of the luzerne and surrounding counties. Recently, a new cancer center was opened in august 2023, affiliated with the lehigh valley topper cancer institute. This facility includes radiation oncology services, hematology / oncology offices, infusion services, surgical oncology, gynecologic oncology, a multidisciplinary clinic, along with cancer risk and genetic assessment appointments. The infusion suite has private bays, with reclining chairs and massage capabilities to offer our patients the most comfort possible.infants/children/young adults:through our patient-centered & integration of care philosophy including state-of-the-art diagnostic and medical decision-making techniques, LVPG-h provides superior outpatient pediatric medical care. A team of physicians and subspecialists collaborate to ensure access and optimal outcomes in community and hospital settings.primary care:primary care physicians and apcs provide high-quality, comprehensive, coordinated care to adults and children. We focus on a high-value, patient-centered approach based in longitudinal relationships. Our care model includes same-day illness and injury care, complex disease management, chronic care management, and preventive care. We accept medical assistance patients, offer VFC at all our locations that serve the pediatric population, and promote an equitable, safe, and friendly care environment for patients of all demographics. Our patients have access to care through in-person visits and telehealth both to their established primary care clinician as well as to expresscare and specialty care. This technology creates a paradigm of enhanced access in a convenient manner.we also have several programs which enhance the well-being of the community. We offer a physician-led literacy program called "reach out and read," through which children visiting a participating practice receive an age-appropriate book during their annual well-child visit. In collaboration with the lehigh valley topper cancer institute, we have increased rates of lung cancer screening including efforts to reduce disparities in screening rates. Our linkage to addiction treatment & opioid stewardship program has continued to support our practices in providing medications for opioid use disorder (moud) across 7 counties. Many of these patients face intense barriers to care such as chronic homelessness, past incarceration, and undertreated mental health conditions.our practices are highly engaged in educational efforts, contributing to the skill development of primary care nurse practitioners, physician assistants, and physicians. This education includes partnerships with many local colleges and universities, as well as the philadelphia college of osteopathic medicine and the university of south florida morsani college of medicine. Our practices also support local nursing homes, school sports, and community events.LVPG-h physicians and apcs provide high quality, comprehensive, coordinated care to adults and children. We strive to provide access to care at the time of need, focus on prevention and chronic illness management, and provide coordination among specialists and service lines. In addition to traditional office care, our primary care physicians support the community in many ways, including offering nursing home coverage and school sports coverage. Our ongoing recruitment of physicians and apcs increases our ability to meet the needs of patients in the area.medical specialties:LVPG provides a broad range of medical specialty access to the hazleton community. Physicians from endocrinology, bariatric medicine, and the hepatitis care center regularly provide outpatient services to the hazleton community. Starting in october 2023, rheumatology hired a full-time physician dedicated to the hazleton and schuylkill region. This is the first and only full-time rheumatologist to provide services specific to the hazleton market. In january 2024, pulmonology returned to the hazleton area for the first time since the pandemic. The new pulmonary outpatient office was opened within the newly opened topper cancer center on the campus of LVH hazleton. Multiple pulmonologists serve the community and provide access to services four days per week in this state-of-the-art outpatient facility. Access to specialty care and collaboration with the ever-growing LVPG primary care colleagues in hazleton is vital to providing excellent patient outcomes to the community.econsult program:as part of the econsult program, LVPG-h clinicians can pose non-urgent questions regarding their patients to their specialist colleagues across multiple disciplines. Requests and recommendations are formally incorporated into the EMR and are included in the patient's medical record. The availability of specialists across the ambulatory landscape has improved access and enhanced continuity of care. Adult econsult services include addiction medicine, anticoagulation management, cardiology, disability support, endocrinology, ent, geriatrics, gynecology, hematology, HIV/pre-exposure prophylaxis, infectious diseases, long covid, medical oncology (diagnostic advice), neurology, orthopedics, pain management, pulmonology, psychiatry, rheumatology, toxicology and urology. Our pediatric econsult program also includes endocrinology, infectious disease, gastroenterology and hematology. Inpatient medicine also lives with econsults.hospice services:hospice services are offered within the hazleton market, including hospice inpatient level of care capabilities. The program exceeded the national average in all 9 of 9 publicly reported outcome measures.pulmonary services:pulmonary continues to serve the community and provides access to services four days per week.physiatry:at our LVHN-hazleton program, we focused on enhancing the continuity of care for patients in the region. For the entire last fiscal year, we had a dedicated, full-time medical director in place. This leadership has been crucial in providing consistent and accessible rehabilitative care, offering comprehensive consultations, and establishing an outpatient clinic with emg services. This approach ensures that patients receive the ongoing support they need to recover and improve their quality of life, right in their own community.occupational medicine:LVHN offers occupational medicine specialty services in the northern tier at four dedicated offices including hazleton. This work also includes employee health services to our own LVHN colleagues at several employee health locations across the network in the lehigh valley and the northern tier. Our preventive medicine specialty specializes in providing employee health services to area employers to help keep area employees healthy, safe, and productive at their workplaces. We evaluate and treat employees with work-related injuries and illnesses and provide a variety of medical surveillance services to local employers. Commonly this is a medical exam that is required by the employer or a state or federal regulation. We also provide drug and alcohol testing and medical review officer services to federally and non-federally regulated companies. All our medical providers are certified commercial driver medical examiners by the federal government which allows us to perform DOT CDL physicals. Our patient and employer satisfaction fiscal year average scores exceed 9 out of 10. We take fewer than 3% of injured/ill workers out of work at their initial evaluation with us, minimizing dreaded lost-time injuries.

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Neurosciences:neurology care is available through LVPG-h both in the outpatient setting and acute and ip neurology through our internal teleneurology and telestroke services. Updates from the past year include:- chris mcbride, local resident, and sugarloaf baseball coach shared his story locally about experiencing the symptoms of a stroke and the fast-acting treatment and intervention he received by the hazleton stroke and ed teams.- LVHN is now offering the inspire maskless system for treating sleep apnea by clinicians in pulmonology, ent, and neurology in hazleton. - based on quality and regulation standards by the american heart association, hazleton received the aha/GWTG stroke gold plus award for performance as well as made the stroke honor roll.all hospitals have transitioned from IV alteplase to IV tenecteplase (TNK). In addition to best practice criteria, this transition offers a 30% cost-savings to the organization.in partnership with neuro rehab, the vivistim functional neurosurgery began in december 2023, which is a surgical treatment for patients who are still experiencing upper extremity weakness following a stroke. Our 6th patient was implanted in august 2024.we began anti-amyloid infusion therapy for biomarker-positive mci and early-onset alzheimer's disease. To date, 10 patients from the fleming memory center have been started on treatment.our team conducted the 20th annual stroke symposium through both in-person and virtual platforms. The event was a huge success and had over 200 collective participants across the 2-day event.heart & vascular services:LVPG-h physicians and apcs provide general and invasive cardiology assessments & care plans, heart station services, electrophysiology, and heart failure care.women's health services:LVPG-h maintains comprehensive obstetrics and gynecology services, including general obstetric / gynecologic care, maternal fetal medicine, and a contracted service with specialized obstetric/ gynecologic hospitalists working at LVH-hazleton. To meet the needs of a high percentage of patients who need spanish interpretation for services, we offer robust interpreter services with both in person and virtual staff. LVPG continues to provide clinicians to staff the healthy beginnings plus practice in hazleton, now with a native spanish-speaking physician and a dedicated physician assistant. These comprehensive programs are delivered by teams of healthcare providers including physicians, midwives, and advanced practice clinicians along with their related clinical staff.cancer services:the cancer care program includes several components, such as prevention, genetic counseling, detection, diagnosis, therapy, clinical trials, rehabilitation, and evaluation of care related to cancer. In addition, we have opened a brand-new cancer center to provide state-of-the-art cancer care to the community, including expanded office space, support services, and new radiation equipment. We have begun offering clinical trials in hazleton as well.orthopedic services:the lehigh valley orthopedic institute has expanded services in the hazleton market in FY 24 and completed 626 surgeries in this market. These procedures include total joint replacements, foot and ankle surgery, general orthopedics, and hand surgery. We are proud of our multidisciplinary program located at 26 station circle in hazel township where we provide care to a diverse group of patients in the community. We provide 24/7 orthopedic trauma coverage at the LVHN hazleton hospital. Our team is very active in the community and committed to high quality care in this region.surgical services:LVPG-h offers a full range of quality inpatient and outpatient/short procedure surgical services, including bariatric (weight-loss) and da vinci robotic-assisted surgery with highly qualified robotic surgery certified surgeons. Our otolaryngology (ent) head and neck surgeons began offering inspire sleep apnea treatment. Lvise is also offering urology telehealth services and concussion services within the hazleton market. Additionally, general surgery expanded the reflux treatment program across all entities. Behavioral health services:LVPG providers and advanced practice clinicians provide psychiatric consultation to patients admitted to medical/surgical services to address behavioral health needs and discharge planning. They also assist in the evaluation and management of patients in the emergency department.department of emergency and hospital medicine:LVPG also provides comprehensive emergency and level 4 trauma services at LVH-hazleton. With our expanded emergency department capacity, we have been able to provide efficient and expeditious care to our community. We have added psychiatric emergency services to efficiently evaluate, treat, and disposition this high acuity patient population.virtual care and telemedicine:LVHN has remained a leader in the development and implementation of innovative virtual care programs that have expanded our capacity to provide high quality healthcare services throughout our growing network and beyond. Another example of this is the start of a first-ever fully virtual primary care practice, launched in 2023. Virtual care programs allow our team to offer specialty care to sites and patients that would otherwise not have access to these services.hazleton virtual hub program:recognizing the challenges patients and families face with connecting virtually from home, LVPG expanded the virtual hub program by opening a second virtual hub located within LVPG vine street multispecialty suite in hazleton. Like the schuylkill virtual hub, this site offers a virtual visit experience for our patients with full check-in and check-out with our multispecialty clinical team. Patients are then connected via high-definition video visit cart with superb audio & video quality to a specialist. Current services offered include infectious disease, bariatric medicine, and endocrinology at our hazleton virtual hub.shortly after the launch of our second virtual hub in hazleton, two additional virtual hubs were added to the hazleton region to add and expand services in urology and neurology. The two additional virtual hubs are located within the LVPG urology and LVPG neurology suites at the health and wellness center in hazleton. The infrastructure and process for these additional sites were based on the original virtual hubs built by the department of medicine.educational programs and affiliations:graduate medical education is limited at LVH-h based on infrastructure and limited spots assigned to this hospital through the center for medicare (CMS) services. Nonetheless, gme opportunities have been identified and have been initiated in the emergency medicine department in the hospital. This includes off-service family medicine trainees rotating and providing care during this "community" experience under LVPG faculty. Additionally, chief residents in emergency medicine liberally participate in moonlighting experiences at LVH-h which both supports their education and satisfaction. In the future, other gme programming is being considered including experiences in internal medicine as well as obgyn with a focus on gynecologic surgical experience.community health needs assessment (chna):a chna report examines the factors impacting people's health and wellness in a particular geographical area. The chna report provides an overview of the current state of health in the region and identifies potential areas of concern that can inform the design of clinical programs.these reports are generated annually and are reviewed by LVHN executive leadership at each campus. Population health needs are prioritized based on the community's input and LVHN's ability to make a difference on those initiatives. Next steps include developing strategies to address prioritized health needs which will be presented in LVHN's chna implementation plan.effective at the close of business on 12/31/2024, schuylkill health system medical group, INC., a pennsylvania nonprofit corporation ("shsmg" aka "LVPG-s"), family care centers, INC., a pennsylvania nonprofit corporation ("FCC" aka "LVPG-p"), and hazleton professional services, a pennsylvania nonprofit corporation ("HPS" aka "LVPG-h") merged with and into lehigh valley physician group. The separate existence of shsmg, FCC, and HPS ceased, and LVPG is the surviving entity of the merger. LVPG became the owner of all assets and property of shsmg, FCC, and HPS, and all obligations belonging to or due to each of shsmg, FCC, and HPS.