Norton Healthcare launches virtual hospital, places some employees on paid furlough amid coronavirus pandemic |

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) — The coronavirus pandemic is hitting all sides of health care hard.

Norton Healthcare officials announced Tuesday that more than 800 employees have been placed on paid medical furlough since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis.

"We feel that we have been abundantly careful," said Russ Cox, Norton Healthcare president and CEO. "Obviously, our caregivers are the most important people we have right now, and we want to make sure that they are healthy, and we want to make sure if they're not healthy, that they're not coming to work, that they are in fact staying home and getting healthy."

Cox said 88 Norton employees have tested positive for COVID-19. Fifty-five of those employees have already returned to work. There are currently 226 employees already off on medical furlough for monitoring because they showed some symptoms of or were exposed to COVID-19.

The health care system also launched a virtual hospital at Norton Downtown on Tuesday to stay in touch with people who could have the new virus. The virtual program is expected to be available at all Norton hospitals within the next two weeks.

U of L Health has reported that it has 45 medical employees out for COVID-19; 27 have tested positive for the virus, while 18 are still waiting for their results.

Meanwhile, Louisville health care leaders who are seeing the impact of the coronavirus pandemic firsthand are sharing their experiences. The toll of the virus is heartbreaking, but officials don't believe a further surge is coming to the city. That doesn't mean another surge is out of the question, leaders said, and, if that happens, their staff is ready.

"We all feel like we might be in a prolonged plateau," Cox said. "If that's the case, then we certainly feel like, not only is this Norton Healthcare, but we feel like what we hear from other health care systems in our city and in the region, that everyone is very well positioned to handle a prolonged plateau."

Norton leaders also said it's possible some nursing homes could be used in the future to provide continued care to COVID-19 patients who need it.

To date, Louisville has reported 687 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 55 virus-related deaths, according to Mayor Greg Fischer.