LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Norton Children’s is one step closer to designing its new pediatric care campus in Jeffersontown — and families across Kentucky are helping decide what it will look like.
Since launching its “Follow the Balloon” listening tour this summer, Norton Children’s has received several hundred survey responses and countless comments from parents, caregivers and even children.
The feedback is helping shape everything from hospital rooms to outdoor spaces at the new 150-acre campus planned near Blankenbaker Parkway.
“We have been so pleased with the response that we've gotten to these tours,” said Russ Cox, president and CEO of Norton Healthcare. “We’ve had tremendous feedback — probably over 1,700 surveys that have been filled out, which is amazing in this day and time for people to actually sit down and fill out a survey or go online and fill out a survey.”
Cox said families have asked for family lounges, sensory-friendly rooms, affordable food options, walking trails and nearby lodging for extended stays. He said the goal is to create a space that supports not only patients, but also parents and caregivers.
“We can start from a clean slate and say, what are the support services that families need in order to be there to take great care of their child while they're in the hospital,” Cox said.
For parents like Ryan Taylor, who has two young children treated by Norton Children’s, that community input is a crucial part of the process.
“I love that they're going around the whole state and the region to get this input for the pediatric campus,” Taylor said. “I trust that they'll take all that information and put it to good use and build a world-class facility that'll treat everyone in this community and this region very well.”
The Follow the Balloon tour has already made stops in Louisville, Paducah, Owensboro and Bowling Green.
The next community listening session is scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 6, from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at G.C. Burkhead Elementary School in Elizabethtown.
Norton Children’s will continue gathering community feedback through 2026 before finalizing plans for what it calls a “village of healing” designed for families, by families.
To complete the survey or register for a session, click here.
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