The first new health care delivery facility to be constructed in the Louisville Medical Center in nearly a decade reached its full height today. The University of Louisville celebrated the topping off the Pediatrics Medical Office Building with the ceremonial placement of the final, signed beam.
The 171,000 sq. ft. facility will be home to the general pediatrics and the specialty and subspecialty children’s programs of the university. This will include not only caregivers from the Department of Pediatrics, but also from other departments including neurology, ophthalmology and surgery.
“This facility symbolizes the growth of our efforts to meet the health care needs of the children of Louisville, the region, and beyond,” said Gregory C. Postel, M.D., interim president of the University of Louisville. “Our breadth of services has grown to the point that it makes sense for us to have our own facility, as opposed to locations scattered throughout the Louisville Medical Center.”
“For decades we have provided high quality care to our patients. Now we will be able to bring an equally high quality experience to them and their caregivers,” said Gerard Rabalais, M.D., interim CEO of University of Louisville Physicians and former chair of the Department of Pediatrics. “Further, we truly will be able to provide them with a medical home, something that we continue to learn is so important for people. A home where we are bringing together nearly all of the services we provide to children in an outpatient setting with a truly multidisciplinary approach. This is the future of health care delivery, especially for our children.”
The outpatient services of the Wendy Novak Diabetes Center also will be located in the building. Norton Children’s Hospital also will be providing care within the building including infusion and laboratory services.
UofL officials anticipate nearly 140,000 patient visits per year. Additionally, approximately 500 employees and learners will inhabit the building.
These people will be there not only to provide patient care, but also because of the educational and training mission of the health sciences center. The multidisciplinary approach to the care provided will carry over into this mission as well.
“Our thinking about how we educate our future health care providers has changed significantly in recent years,” said Toni Ganzel, M.D., interim executive dean for the UofL Health Sciences Center. “We no longer provide information in very discrete silos, but rather integrate the information in a multidisciplinary manner. This is applicable not only in the classroom, but also with our clinical training. We have come to understand how important it is for the surgeon to talk with the general physician and the nursing staff and nutritionists so that we have a team approach to patient centered care.”
“One of our guiding principles in the design and construction of this building is how to make the delivery of care more convenient for our patients,” said Charles Woods, M.D., interim chair of the Department of Pediatrics. “By bringing together the specialists who focus on children into a single location, we hope it will transform how care is delivered and education and training are provided. It is very exciting to see this coming together.”
The building is scheduled to open in July 2018.