The Hazleton State General Hospital was opened in 1890 as the State Hospital for Injured Persons of the Middle Coal Fields of Pennsylvania. Built on an eleven-acre tract of land, the hospital offered care to injured miners and was funded by donations from mining companies, miners, and the state. Initially the hospital was only staffed with male nurses, until the hospital hired its first Head Matron of Nursing in 1893. A year later, the School of Nursing opened and accepted only female nursing students.

The nursing school graduated its final class in 1982, its program absorbed by Wilkes College, now Wilkes University. The Hospital merged with Lehigh Valley Health Network in 1975.