Training at Hospitals and Women’s Health Clinics

St. Luke’s Hospital – Bethlehem Campus

Women’s Health Clinic

Situated next to the labor and delivery unit is the Women's Health Clinic. Providing services to our community with more than 12,000 visits yearly, the Women's Health Clinic is a resident-run, attending-supervised office dedicated to the training of physicians. A board-certified subspecialist supervises all the subspecialty-run clinics. This includes:

  • High risk obstetrics
  • Reproductive endocrinology and infertility
  • Gynecologic oncology
  • Urogynecology 
  • Chronic pelvic pain

Training in ultrasound and colposcopy is aided by the two ultrasounds and three colposcopes located in the clinic. Eight exam rooms and the procedure room are constructed to allow the attendings to monitor resident and patient interactions to aid in developing resident interviewing/diagnostic skills.

The staff includes six registered nurses, four patient care assistants and four clerical personnel, in addition to its three nurse practitioners. The nurse practitioners are responsible for keeping our patient volumes up without overloading our residents. They work in consultation with the residents in a model common to many obstetric/gynecologic practices. Social service and dietary personnel are available in the clinic at all times.

Labor and Delivery Unit

The Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology boasts state-of-the-art technology and facilities to handle 4,100 annual deliveries. It features four triage beds, 15 single-patient rooms and nine centrally monitored labor-delivery-recovery rooms, all with private baths. Two operative rooms are available for Caesarean section and other obstetric surgery. Computerized patient charts and sophisticated monitoring systems enhance patient care and data collection for research projects.

The Perinatal Intermediate Care Unit

This wing has 22 centrally monitored beds for high-risk antepartum and post-partum patients. More routine overflow beds are under construction adjacent to the new mother/baby unit.

The Perinatal Center

Four board-certified perinatologists and certified genetic counselors have more than 12,000 high-risk patient visits a year at this center. The center offers genetic and antepartum counseling, surveillance and testing and an operating room for advanced invasive perinatal procedures.

The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit

Four board-certified neonatologists administer a full-service, 28-bassinet Level lll NICU.

St. Luke's Center for Pelvic Health

St. Luke's Center for Pelvic Health is a nationally known, on-campus facility for the education of residents in urogynecology, continence abnormalities and pelvic reconstructive surgery.

Laparoscopic/Surgery Teaching Laboratory

Located next to the Perinatal Center is a renovated surgical teaching center. New educational facilities include a recently renovated 400-square-foot Ob/Gyn Surgical Training Laboratory, dedicated to obstetric and gynecologic residents, and is adjacent to their 35-seat conference space. It has three formal stations for teaching basic surgical techniques, LASER surgery and advanced laparoscopic/hysteroscopic methodology. Three laparoscopic trainers allow ample access for resident learning.

Basic Science Laboratory

Also new to the Obstetric and Gynecologic Residency this year, for those candidates interested in bench rather than clinical research, is our 200-square-foot Basic Science Laboratory. Currently, the laboratory has the capabilities to support a full range of molecular techniques. These include ELISA assays, cell culture, polymerase chain reaction and immunohistology. The lab is fiscally supported by the hospital and local grants.

Departmental Offices/Library

Located next to the Women's Health Clinic are the departmental offices, which include an office for the chief residents. A library is located in this area that contains all the major obstetric/gynecologic journals and other important journals, along with the major obstetric/gynecologic texts. Computers with online access also are available in this area. Conference rooms for didactic sessions are located in this area, as well as next to labor and delivery.

St. Luke’s Hospital – Allentown Campus

The Women’s Health Center

Adjacent to the inpatient hospital is the new 4,200 square-foot, six-exam-room St. Luke's Women's Health Center. The clinic, dedicated only to obstetric and gynecologic services, is staffed with two front-office clerks, one registered nurse and a full-time nurse practitioner. The clinic includes an ultrasound machine, procedure room and colposcope with TV monitor. It provides group conferencing space, office space for the chairman of the department, the program directors of the residency and private areas for mentors to review cases with the residents.

Located in a comparable, but completely separate portion of the same building, is the Family Practice Residency Program's outpatient clinic, which allows for an excellent educational and collegial environment, as well as a central focus for the community's primary care.

Labor and Delivery

The facility at St. Luke's Hospital - Allentown Campus occupies an entire wing of the hospital and consists of seven LDRPs, two post-C-section rooms which convert to LDRPs in times of high census, two anti-natal testing beds and an operating room for C-sections on the unit. A three-bed, Level II NICU is part of the Ob/Gyn floor. There is central fetal and maternal monitoring capability. Resident call rooms also are located on the Ob/Gyn floor.

Staffing includes one-to-one nursing for labor patients, 24-hour anesthesia/epidural coverage and 24-hour neonatal resuscitation from attending Neontologists and Neonatal Nurse practioners. Post-partum rooms now number six, with architectural planning now completed for expansion of that number to two antepartum rooms (Perinatal Intermediate Care) and seven private post-partum rooms.

Level II NICU

Recently constructed is a four-bassinet NICU caring for neonates as young as 28 weeks. The section chief of neonatology on that campus staffs the unit, with back-up from the other three neonatologists from the Bethlehem campus.

Operating Rooms

New operating suites and support areas include a state-of-the-art laparoscopic suite, including voice activated equipment and teleconferencing teaching potential. Constructed specifically with gynecologic procedures in mind, the operating rooms benefited from entirely new laparoscopic and urogyencologic/pelvic reconstruction surgical equipment. The new general operating rooms occupy space immediately adjacent to Labor and Delivery and can be used if necessary as back-up for obstetric surgery adjunctive to that of the obstetric operating room itself.

On-call space

Adequate on-call space is provided for the residents, "24-hour in-house call attending physicians" and other attending physicians on the labor and delivery floor.

Learning Resource Center and Library

An up-to-date resource center is provided to residents on a 24-hour basis. In addition, there is easy access to many available on-line resources.