LEXINGTON, Ky.—To meet the growing health needs of the community and the Commonwealth, UK HealthCare will begin planning design efforts on building projects over the next several years that could ultimately total some $2.4 billion.

Those projects – part of a refresh of UK HealthCare’s strategic plan – were endorsed recently by members of the health care committee of the UK Board of Trustees during an annual retreat. The full UK Board of Trustees will consider those projects at its Friday meeting.

Projects are designed to expand access to advanced subspecialty care on the University of Kentucky campus as well as provide more primary and specialty care in the community to UK employees and for medically underserved areas.

“More people – both within the UK community and those who simply cannot access the care we provide for many reasons – have primary and ambulatory treatment needs that should be filled closer to home,” said UK President Eli Capilouto. “We are now a sprawling academic health system within a growing and thriving university enterprise – something those on whose shoulders we stand could never have envisioned more than six decades ago. We have built, not for the names on buildings or for acclaim, but for our state – its health and its future. And we must continue to grow to meet the growing needs of our state.”

Trustees on the health care committee endorsed a refresh of the academic medical system’s 2025 strategic plan and a five-year budget plan, detailing the resources necessary to fund expanded facilities on the Chandler campus, more employees and further growth as an access point for ambulatory and specialty care in the region.

Specifically, trustees endorsed the following plans:

• Enhance the position of UK HealthCare as the state’s premier center for advanced sub-specialty care by building a new bed tower on the Chandler campus near the 12-story tower opened in 2011. UK HealthCare also will be embarking on projects to build more operating room capacity and renovate and expand existing acute pediatric care spaces as well endoscopy. UK HealthCare also estimates it will need to grow its skilled workforce by nearly 4,800 people over the next several years.
• Expanding UK HealthCare’s capacity to care for the community and UK people. UK HealthCare, with approval from the Board of Trustees, will begin planning and design work on ambulatory care sites in the region to provide greater access to care to UK employees and their families, as well as crucially medically underserved areas here in Fayette County. The gap in life expectancy across some Fayette County zip codes, for example, is 11 years, based in part on access to care.
• Growing an academic health system – fueled by transdisciplinary approaches to research — for Kentucky to meet the health care needs of the state. UK HealthCare’s recently completed acquisition of King’s Daughters is further expanding access to care throughout the state. Similarly, UK is constructing facilities on campus – a new Health Education Building – to bring together potential clinicians across disciplines to learn, work and heal together.

“During a time of transition and dynamic change throughout the health care landscape, it is our responsibility to ensure we are meeting the growing needs of our state,” said Britt Brockman, chair of the UK board’s health care committee. “We will remain focused on the mission we established more than 15 years ago – that no matter who you are or where you live in Kentucky, there is a place close to home to meet your advanced care needs. This is who we are. This is what we do. But that also means recognizing and responding to the growing primary and ambulatory care needs of our people and those who don’t have access to the care we provide.”

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LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Norton Children’s Hospital has opened a new $12 million unit built to serve hundreds of sick and injured kids every year as a part of the hospital’s larger $78 million renovation project.

The new 24-bed medical/surgical unit will provide care for patients with respiratory, gastrointestinal and neurological diseases, and children recovering from a variety of surgical procedures.

The 31,000-square-foot space encompasses the entire sixth floor and features private patient rooms along with a teen entertainment room, toddler playroom and family nourishment spaces. Previously, the area had been a conference room and office space.

The goal of the project was to expand inpatient medical-surgical bed capacity, to allow space for expanding the existing Pediatric Intensive Care and to create the Jennifer Lawrence Cardiac Intensive Care Unit. 

“The project is a phase of an ongoing, multi-year, multi-phase master facility plan originally developed in 2015,” said David Boome, system director, Design & Construction, for Norton Healthcare.

The expansion has been constructed on a floor of the hospital previously used for clinical support offices and education functions. Prior to that, the floor was originally the roof level of the original hospital, which was subsequently expanded vertically in 1997.

Key design features include a single loaded corridor with patient rooms on the exterior perimeter and staff support space in between patient rooms. A single nurse station serves the floor with staff support spaces dispersed around the floor. This allows close access to the patient rooms by nursing and caregiving staff. 

“Access to natural light is a key design element in this renovation,” said Boome. “Patient activity rooms and staff work areas have generous window areas.”

Furthermore, the complete conversion of the floor from office/support to inpatient allows all of the supporting technology to be integrated with the design. 

Electronic Medical Record is available in each patient room as well as nurse station. 

Nurse call, patient monitoring systems, communications systems, an electronic patient board, and patient entertainment/information systems are all integrated into the building infrastructure.

“The biggest challenge, in any renovation project, is working within the bounds of a functioning hospital,” said Boome. “Space is at a premium in this facility, thus the challenge of safely working around the existing facility is complicated by having limited access to the sixth-floor area.”

Boome explained that detailed planning involving the entire hospital staff, caregivers, consultants, contractor and subs was essential—followed by a day-to-day and sometimes hour-by-hour monitoring of the project sequence to ensure the safety of patients and guest during construction operations. 

A second challenge was the existing mechanical rooms remaining on the floor. Originally part of the roof, the mechanical systems could not be moved and much attention was paid to designing an efficient layout while dealing with the location and access issues posed by the mechanical rooms.

Now, the space is quiet, despite being next to major mechanical spaces. It applies an easy-to-navigate layout, is efficient in its use of available space, and is made especially pleasant by access to natural light. 

“Most significantly, the team was able to convert a non-clinical space for clinical in-patient use; creating a space that supports and contributes, rather than detracts from the patient experience,” said Boome.

With the medical/surgical unit complete, work will begin next month to build the Jennifer Lawrence Cardiac Intensive Care Unit.

Other areas to be renovated as part of the overall project include the “Just for Kids” Critical Care Center and two neonatal intensive care units. The entire renovation project will be completed in 2022.

Construction of this unit began January 2018. Construction to the west side of the facility was completed Nov. 30, 2018, while the east side reached completion on Jan. 31, 2019.   

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