June 11, 2025 • 9 mins
Norton Healthcare and Norton Children's president and CEO Russell Cox details the forthcoming pediatric health center complex coming to the east side of Louisville. Cox says it should attract medical professionals from throughout the region to serve the medical, physical, and mental health needs of children.
Upcoming listening sessions will help shape the full mission of the campus, which will provide pediatric medical care plus accommodations for family members who choose to be nearby.
Cox predicts that over 1,000 new jobs will be created, plus a vibrant business district will enhance the 1,500 acre tract off of Tucker Station Road near I-64 and I-265.
Upcoming listening sessions will help shape the full mission of the campus, which will provide pediatric medical care plus accommodations for family members who choose to be nearby.
Cox predicts that over 1,000 new jobs will be created, plus a vibrant business district will enhance the 1,500 acre tract off of Tucker Station Road near I-64 and I-265.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, Pablo, thanks for telling you with News Radio
A forty whas big news in Louisville today. Another hospital,
Norton Healthcare, big time heroes around here. Russell Cox is
the president and CEO of Norton Healthcare and Norton Children's Hey, Russ,
welcome back to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Hey Terry, how are you doing? Thanks for having us man.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
You sure hang around with a lot of nice folks.
I saw you all over the news today and I
thought I got to talk to my buddy Russ one
more time because this is a heck of an announcement.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
It absolutely is the heck of an announcement, and we're
excited about it. You know, we feel like we just
came off of Norton West Louisville Hospital and we provided
a great deal of access for a place that hadn't
had it for so long, and we looked around and said,
you know, it's time that we take care of children,
not just in Louisville, but in the state and in
the region. And we want to be that kind of
organization that people want to come to from all parts
(00:52):
of the country, and this gives us a great opportunity.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
I think that's fantastic. We're talking about leading edge technology
and some of the top pediatric specialists from around on
the air regeneral or the whole country. But I know
one of the things you're proud of, not only is
this a special hospital, but you're going to make it
so that the families connected to children being treated can
be nearby.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
You know, Terry, It's just got to happen, because what
we know for certain is that that outcomes improve when
families are more involved in the care of the child
and have the opportunity to be close. But that could
take on a lot of different things, because we want
to have amenities here where you bring your child here
and you don't have to stress and worry about things
like where am I going to stay, Where am I
going to eat? How am I going to work out
(01:37):
at a gym? How am I going to get the
type of mental health services that I need as a
parent or as a caregiver to make sure that I
stay strong during the time that the child's here. So
we want it to be a place. We've got one
hundred and fifty acres here. We want this to be
a pediatric village that has everything that any family in
the country would need to come here and make certain
that they're not stressed about having to prepare of those
(02:00):
things and provide for those things that can just focus
on the care of their child.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
I saw in the release from your company Tay the
United States ranks among the lowest developed countries for children's
health according to UNISEF. I find that astounding.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
And it's unacceptable, and we talk a lot at Norton
Healthcare about the importance of access because what we found
through the years is if we find places where we
can connect with people and build trust, they will use
the health care services, they will use the preventative services.
They will do things to stay healthy and lead a
healthy lifestyle. If it's inconvenient, or if they are barriers
(02:36):
socially that keep them from going, be it a lack
of trust, be it transportation, be it childcare, they're not
going to come and they're not going to bring their kids.
So if we're going to change those statistics, we need
to do it at the pediatric level. So we've got
to change all of that as a country and really
begin to build great health habits and take good care
of children so that the next generation doesn't have those
same Statistics.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Were speaking with Russell Coxy's president and CEO of Norton
Healthcare and Norton Children's in a big announcement today about
this whole area in East Louisville where it's going to
serve pediatric needs and in the families around them. What
are we talking about. I read one thing that said
it could be one thousand new jobs.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Absolutely, we think that there's at least a thousand jobs
that would go into this site. We think there's even
more than that when you consider the entire development of
the village of the one hundred and fifty acres, because
we anticipate that we're going to have some retail on
this site, we anticipate that we'd have hotels, we anticipate
that we could have services for fitness, and so the
(03:40):
employment of a thousand at the hospital is probably just
the beginning of what it can mean to economic development
for both Jefferson Challenge for Louisville. So we're thinking that
it is a great economic development driver. We're also thinking though,
that it will attract a whole lot of people who
want to work in this kind of environment. What we
saw it at Norton West lois a hospital as there
(04:01):
were so many people who were nurses and clinicians from
other states who said, I understand the mission of what
you're doing there, and I want to be a part
of it. So we think by developing this new concept
of a pediatric village where everything's on site, you don't
ever have to leave, that there's going to be people
who want to come here and work. And that's what
it's about, is attracting that talent, attracting that position workforce
(04:23):
to want to be here and to want to live
in louis of Kentucky.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
And before all this comes to fruition, I know there
are listening sessions and so forth that's coming up when
next month or.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
So, absolutely we've got a van that says just for
kids that we're going to be traveling all over the region,
not just the state, but all over the region, and
we're going to be having listening sessions. Again a reference
back to Northon West Louisville Hospital. Before we ever put
a shovel in the ground, we went out and did
over five hundred listening sessions where we said, what would
(04:51):
you like this hospital to look like? What services would
you'd like to see, How would you like it to
just do business in your community, and how can we
build trust. So we learned that that works, we're going
to do it again, but we're going to do it
all over the region. We're going to take a year
to get all the data, all the information that we can,
and simultaneously we're going to be looking at some architects
and some planners, because we like to think we're developing
(05:14):
a little city out here, a little pediatric village, and
we want to make sure that we lay it out
in a way that's sustainable for years to come, and
that can be something that Louisville can be very proud of.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Yeah. I saw a national story on your West Louisville facility,
and a lot of that started with an employee who
cornered you and said, hey, hey, mister Conks, can we
talk for a minute. And look how that's turned out.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Yeah, it's good to be an old guy who has
to go to the restroom a lot, because they cornered
me coming out of the restroom and said, hey, we've
got an idea. And the idea they pitched was a
unity jam in West Louisville and there's a way to
extend access. And as we got into doing this. They
came back and said, you know, we need a hospital
in West Louis. There hadn't been one there and over
one hundred and fifty years. So, being the semi smart
(06:01):
CEO that I am, I listened to what they said
and we took off on planning. And I think it's
a great thing. I think that so many of our
employees have so many good ideas and we need to
make sure that we're involving them and listening to what
they're saying. They're the ones who are closest to patients
and understand what needs to be done. So for once
I was semi smart, as.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
I say, see how that goes. I've met I've met
a bunch of your crew at the Downtown Norton Children's
Hospital because you guys help us with a cru safe
for children. That's greatly appreciated. Right, And so that's three
hundred beds. What are we talking about in the scope
of this one in the East.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
I think we're looking around four hundred and twenty. But
you know, in patient beds and healthcare anymore is just
a number because so much of what happens has to
do with out patient and ambulatory services. But we want
to make sure that we're able to take care of
the most acute. And also I want to mention this
that this hospital was going to have a definite folk
(07:00):
on behavioral health for too long, and a lot of
statistics that you quoted are kind of there because there
hasn't been enough behavioral health support services for young people
through the years. We're going to change that. This campus
is going to have a large quotion of services that
can help parents and can help individuals that are caring
for pediatric patients get the mental health services that they need,
(07:23):
both on an outpatient and an end patient basis. So
my goal here is to make certain that anything that
the pediatric patient needs to live the best life that
they can live is available right here. We're excited about
the idea, too, of doing things different. One of the
things that we've thought about is there's always this issue
of when somebody comes to Louisville from another town, they
(07:46):
have to go to many different buildings to get tests
and they have a hard time navigating and where do
I go? And here it's going to be very simple
because we're going to have autonomous cars that if you
need to go to another building or program to take
you right there to the or of that building.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Dude, you are talking my language. Now there you go.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
You know, I'm tired of hearing people say I don't
know how to get around in a hospital. And I
think that these types of things are what begins to
erode those barriers of people saying I don't want to
go to the hospital. Now. We want you to be
healthy and not have to come, But when you do,
we don't want you to have the stress of those
things to worry about.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Right. That takes the fear factor right out of it too.
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Well, it has to be. It has to be a
situation where we can build that trust that we're looking
out for not only your child, but we're looking out
for you too.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Ross. It's great talking to you again. Congratulations on this announcement.
And are you now the number one employer in the
Louisville metro area?
Speaker 2 (08:45):
All back gone at those old ups, guys, they tend
to hire a few people and are just ahead of
us that we're number two, But we're after their tail terry.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Why don't you and I go out there some night
and throw some packages for a couple hours and just
see what they're up to.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Hey, I saw you on the crusade man, you can
do it still.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
I'm in there too, brother. All right, great talking to
your russ. Congratulations.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Hey, thanks so much for having us, and we welcome
anybody to come out and take a look at this site.
We'd love to show you what we're gonna do.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
All right, Well, we'll learn more about the listening sessions
from you guys and let everybody know about that.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Appreciate it, Terry, thank you.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
See there's Russell Cox. He is the president CEO of
Norton Healthcare and Norton Children's and boy, old boy, that's
a huge announcement today for this new hospital in the
East Side. Thanks bunch back in a minute on news
radio eight forty w h A. S.
All right, Pablo, thanks for telling you with News Radio
A forty whas big news in Louisville today. Another hospital,
Norton Healthcare, big time heroes around here. Russell Cox is
the president and CEO of Norton Healthcare and Norton Children's Hey, Russ,
welcome back to the show.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
Hey Terry, how are you doing? Thanks for having us man.
Speaker 1 (00:19):
You sure hang around with a lot of nice folks.
I saw you all over the news today and I
thought I got to talk to my buddy Russ one
more time because this is a heck of an announcement.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
It absolutely is the heck of an announcement, and we're
excited about it. You know, we feel like we just
came off of Norton West Louisville Hospital and we provided
a great deal of access for a place that hadn't
had it for so long, and we looked around and said,
you know, it's time that we take care of children,
not just in Louisville, but in the state and in
the region. And we want to be that kind of
organization that people want to come to from all parts
(00:52):
of the country, and this gives us a great opportunity.
Speaker 1 (00:54):
I think that's fantastic. We're talking about leading edge technology
and some of the top pediatric specialists from around on
the air regeneral or the whole country. But I know
one of the things you're proud of, not only is
this a special hospital, but you're going to make it
so that the families connected to children being treated can
be nearby.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
You know, Terry, It's just got to happen, because what
we know for certain is that that outcomes improve when
families are more involved in the care of the child
and have the opportunity to be close. But that could
take on a lot of different things, because we want
to have amenities here where you bring your child here
and you don't have to stress and worry about things
like where am I going to stay, Where am I
going to eat? How am I going to work out
(01:37):
at a gym? How am I going to get the
type of mental health services that I need as a
parent or as a caregiver to make sure that I
stay strong during the time that the child's here. So
we want it to be a place. We've got one
hundred and fifty acres here. We want this to be
a pediatric village that has everything that any family in
the country would need to come here and make certain
that they're not stressed about having to prepare of those
(02:00):
things and provide for those things that can just focus
on the care of their child.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
I saw in the release from your company Tay the
United States ranks among the lowest developed countries for children's
health according to UNISEF. I find that astounding.
Speaker 2 (02:15):
And it's unacceptable, and we talk a lot at Norton
Healthcare about the importance of access because what we found
through the years is if we find places where we
can connect with people and build trust, they will use
the health care services, they will use the preventative services.
They will do things to stay healthy and lead a
healthy lifestyle. If it's inconvenient, or if they are barriers
(02:36):
socially that keep them from going, be it a lack
of trust, be it transportation, be it childcare, they're not
going to come and they're not going to bring their kids.
So if we're going to change those statistics, we need
to do it at the pediatric level. So we've got
to change all of that as a country and really
begin to build great health habits and take good care
of children so that the next generation doesn't have those
same Statistics.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Were speaking with Russell Coxy's president and CEO of Norton
Healthcare and Norton Children's in a big announcement today about
this whole area in East Louisville where it's going to
serve pediatric needs and in the families around them. What
are we talking about. I read one thing that said
it could be one thousand new jobs.
Speaker 2 (03:18):
Absolutely, we think that there's at least a thousand jobs
that would go into this site. We think there's even
more than that when you consider the entire development of
the village of the one hundred and fifty acres, because
we anticipate that we're going to have some retail on
this site, we anticipate that we'd have hotels, we anticipate
that we could have services for fitness, and so the
(03:40):
employment of a thousand at the hospital is probably just
the beginning of what it can mean to economic development
for both Jefferson Challenge for Louisville. So we're thinking that
it is a great economic development driver. We're also thinking though,
that it will attract a whole lot of people who
want to work in this kind of environment. What we
saw it at Norton West lois a hospital as there
(04:01):
were so many people who were nurses and clinicians from
other states who said, I understand the mission of what
you're doing there, and I want to be a part
of it. So we think by developing this new concept
of a pediatric village where everything's on site, you don't
ever have to leave, that there's going to be people
who want to come here and work. And that's what
it's about, is attracting that talent, attracting that position workforce
(04:23):
to want to be here and to want to live
in louis of Kentucky.
Speaker 1 (04:25):
And before all this comes to fruition, I know there
are listening sessions and so forth that's coming up when
next month or.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
So, absolutely we've got a van that says just for
kids that we're going to be traveling all over the region,
not just the state, but all over the region, and
we're going to be having listening sessions. Again a reference
back to Northon West Louisville Hospital. Before we ever put
a shovel in the ground, we went out and did
over five hundred listening sessions where we said, what would
(04:51):
you like this hospital to look like? What services would
you'd like to see, How would you like it to
just do business in your community, and how can we
build trust. So we learned that that works, we're going
to do it again, but we're going to do it
all over the region. We're going to take a year
to get all the data, all the information that we can,
and simultaneously we're going to be looking at some architects
and some planners, because we like to think we're developing
(05:14):
a little city out here, a little pediatric village, and
we want to make sure that we lay it out
in a way that's sustainable for years to come, and
that can be something that Louisville can be very proud of.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Yeah. I saw a national story on your West Louisville facility,
and a lot of that started with an employee who
cornered you and said, hey, hey, mister Conks, can we
talk for a minute. And look how that's turned out.
Speaker 2 (05:38):
Yeah, it's good to be an old guy who has
to go to the restroom a lot, because they cornered
me coming out of the restroom and said, hey, we've
got an idea. And the idea they pitched was a
unity jam in West Louisville and there's a way to
extend access. And as we got into doing this. They
came back and said, you know, we need a hospital
in West Louis. There hadn't been one there and over
one hundred and fifty years. So, being the semi smart
(06:01):
CEO that I am, I listened to what they said
and we took off on planning. And I think it's
a great thing. I think that so many of our
employees have so many good ideas and we need to
make sure that we're involving them and listening to what
they're saying. They're the ones who are closest to patients
and understand what needs to be done. So for once
I was semi smart, as.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
I say, see how that goes. I've met I've met
a bunch of your crew at the Downtown Norton Children's
Hospital because you guys help us with a cru safe
for children. That's greatly appreciated. Right, And so that's three
hundred beds. What are we talking about in the scope
of this one in the East.
Speaker 2 (06:38):
I think we're looking around four hundred and twenty. But
you know, in patient beds and healthcare anymore is just
a number because so much of what happens has to
do with out patient and ambulatory services. But we want
to make sure that we're able to take care of
the most acute. And also I want to mention this
that this hospital was going to have a definite folk
(07:00):
on behavioral health for too long, and a lot of
statistics that you quoted are kind of there because there
hasn't been enough behavioral health support services for young people
through the years. We're going to change that. This campus
is going to have a large quotion of services that
can help parents and can help individuals that are caring
for pediatric patients get the mental health services that they need,
(07:23):
both on an outpatient and an end patient basis. So
my goal here is to make certain that anything that
the pediatric patient needs to live the best life that
they can live is available right here. We're excited about
the idea, too, of doing things different. One of the
things that we've thought about is there's always this issue
of when somebody comes to Louisville from another town, they
(07:46):
have to go to many different buildings to get tests
and they have a hard time navigating and where do
I go? And here it's going to be very simple
because we're going to have autonomous cars that if you
need to go to another building or program to take
you right there to the or of that building.
Speaker 1 (08:00):
Dude, you are talking my language. Now there you go.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
You know, I'm tired of hearing people say I don't
know how to get around in a hospital. And I
think that these types of things are what begins to
erode those barriers of people saying I don't want to
go to the hospital. Now. We want you to be
healthy and not have to come, But when you do,
we don't want you to have the stress of those
things to worry about.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
Right. That takes the fear factor right out of it too.
That's awesome.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
Well, it has to be. It has to be a
situation where we can build that trust that we're looking
out for not only your child, but we're looking out
for you too.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Ross. It's great talking to you again. Congratulations on this announcement.
And are you now the number one employer in the
Louisville metro area?
Speaker 2 (08:45):
All back gone at those old ups, guys, they tend
to hire a few people and are just ahead of
us that we're number two, But we're after their tail terry.
Speaker 1 (08:54):
Why don't you and I go out there some night
and throw some packages for a couple hours and just
see what they're up to.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
Hey, I saw you on the crusade man, you can
do it still.
Speaker 1 (09:04):
I'm in there too, brother. All right, great talking to
your russ. Congratulations.
Speaker 2 (09:09):
Hey, thanks so much for having us, and we welcome
anybody to come out and take a look at this site.
We'd love to show you what we're gonna do.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
All right, Well, we'll learn more about the listening sessions
from you guys and let everybody know about that.
Speaker 2 (09:21):
Appreciate it, Terry, thank you.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
See there's Russell Cox. He is the president CEO of
Norton Healthcare and Norton Children's and boy, old boy, that's
a huge announcement today for this new hospital in the
East Side. Thanks bunch back in a minute on news
radio eight forty w h A. S.
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