Allegheny Valley Hospital (AVH) has served Natrona Heights, Pa., and the surrounding community for over 100 years. AVH has 188 licensed beds and provides emergency care, surgical care, rehabilitation care and other health care services for its patients. Like many of its Western Pennsylvania counterparts, Allegheny Valley Hospital was built to serve the region's flourishing industrial towns. By the late 1800s, industrial activity had reached the town of Tarentum, about 22 miles northeast of Pittsburgh and home to lumber and saw mills, steel mills, brick kilns, and several plate glass factories. Serious injuries were a daily occurrence, but without a hospital, many patients were sent by train to a hospital in Pittsburgh. In 1906 a committee of doctors and prominent area residents secured a charter for the establishment of what was then called the Allegheny Valley General Hospital. Under the leadership of Dr. George Getze, the committee leased a property along Tarentum's Second Avenue, and the hospital was open for business on Jan. 28, 1909.