Hazleton State Hospital

Hazleton State Hospital
Hazleton State Hospital
Construction Began	1892
Current Status	Active
Building Style	Single Building
Alternate Names	*Hazleton General Hospital

NOTE: Hazleton State Hospital was one of many hospitals that Pennsylvania established for coal miners, these hospitals were also referred to as State General Hospitals, this hospital was not a psychiatric facility.

In 1891, Hazleton General Hospital was founded to provide medical care to the coal miners of this region. Since that time, health care in the United States and here in Hazleton has changed dramatically. For many years, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania owned our hospital.

In September 1986, Hazleton General Hospital divested from the State and became a not-for-profit community hospital. Then in October 1996, Hazleton General Hospital joined together with Hazleton-Saint? Joseph Medical Center to form the Greater Hazleton Health Alliance. The Greater Hazleton Health Alliance (GHHA) was formed to bring the people of Greater Hazleton the highest quality healthcare and the latest available technology, without duplicating services, equipment and costs.

Eight years later, in 2004, an effort was begun to consolidate and relocate many services to Hazleton General Hospital. The cost of providing healthcare - which had been rising steadily across the country -had also affected our local hospitals and duplication of services at both facilities was no longer feasible.

Work began on consolidating inpatient and emergency services to Hazleton General Hospital, while outpatient services were moved to the Hazleton-Saint? Joseph campus which had surrendered its acute care hospital license in September 2005 and operated as a service of Hazleton General Hospital until the two organizations merged in December 2006.

With the realigning of services to Hazleton General Hospital came the physical changes necessary to restructure the building to become Hazleton’s premiere health care facility. An $18 million construction and renovation project began in 2005 and was completed in November 2006. As part of the project, a two-story Annex building was constructed at the back of the hospital to house a new, state-of-the-art laboratory, medical records department, medical library, physician staff office and lounge, quality management and administrative offices. Inside the hospital, a Step-Down? Unit was constructed to serve patients who were transitioning from the Intensive Care Unit.

The Emergency Department doubled in size to better accommodate the growing community population in one central location. And, incorporating the services of Lehigh Valley Hospital in a partnership to provide physician staffing to the new Emergency Department means GHHA now has access to specialists and technologies only found at larger medical facilities. A new Surgical Suite and Short Procedure Unit rounded out major medical service renovations and expansions within the hospital.

In the fall 2005, ground was broken for the construction of the 72,000 sq. ft. Hazleton Health & Wellness Center. Located on Airport Road across from WalMart?, this premier facility offers outpatient medical testing and rehabilitation services all at one convenient location. An ambulatory surgery center, physician offices and a state-of-the-art fitness center are also housed at this facility.

The Alliance serves more than 100,000 people throughout the Greater Hazleton area. Our medical staff consists of more than 100 highly-trained and well-respected physicians in a wide variety of specialties. We are well equipped and dedicated to providing our patients with emergency, diagnostic, and therapeutic medical services.

The Greater Hazleton Health Alliance, including Hazleton General Hospital, is now poised to move forward with high quality health care in the Greater Hazleton area to better serve our community now and well into the future.^[1]