Major renovation at Norton Suburban and new critical care center opens

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- A new critical care center opened on the second floor of Norton Suburban Hospital on Tuesday. With a ribbon cutting, the Cressman Critical Care Center held its grand opening. Patients have already been using the facility for the past two weeks.

Retired Louisville physician Elizabeth Cressman donated $3 million to make the intensive care unit possible.

Charlotte Ipsan, President of Norton Women's and Kosair Children's Hospital says, "You'll see carpet in the hallways, not the rooms, but the hallways. That takes the sound down. The family, the patients, the staff...they told us what they wanted and this is what it is."

Considered the only intensive care unit of its kind in the area, it has large rooms where families stay on couches that convert into beds. Patient rooms also have large windows that provide lots of natural light which is said to improve healing. There are also private restrooms and WiFi connections. There are 16 beds with room for expansion -- and the nurse's station is also state of the art.

Lynnie Meyer, the Chief Development Officer of Norton Healthcare says, "This is really the second step in that journey. This is an evolution in that journey. We will have many more seeds that will come to life and roots that are being planted today that will bloom here over the next 24 months."

There is major construction underway as Norton Suburban will be transformed into the new Norton Women's and Kosair Children's Hospital. Outside, a huge crane and plenty of workers are getting the project done.

A new traffic flow is also part of the plan to make it easier to get in and out of the hospital.

Ipsan says, "We are actually adding on 139,000 square feet new onto this campus. As we talk about this, we really talk about the St. Matthews campus because we have a lot of outpatient services, other inpatient services that really help drive care for men, women and children."

It's still business as usual inside the hospital, but soon it will have added services once the expansion is completed.

Ipsan says, "So the big picture is innovative ways to take care of special women's programs that don't exist in this area. We don't want people leaving our state to get care for migraine, pelvic floor health, all of those things, bladder incontinence."

Part of the project will be finished in phases, with the whole project completed by January of 2015.