LOCAL

Kentucky's largest hospital system to build $42M rehabilitation hospital in Jeffersontown

Ben Tobin
Louisville Courier Journal
Outside the emergency room area at Baptist Health’s Hardin Memorial Hospital in Elizabethtown, Ky.
Aug. 19, 2021

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Kentucky's largest hospital system is about to get even bigger.

Louisville-based Baptist Health, alongside Birmingham, Alabama-based Encompass Health Corp., announced Tuesday they have received a certificate of need to build and operate a 40-bed inpatient rehabilitation hospital near the intersection of Blankenbaker and Bluegrass parkways in Jeffersontown.

The hospital will replace Baptist Health's 29-bed unit currently located on the Baptist Health Louisville campus at 4000 Kresge Way in St Matthews. That unit will be repurposed, according to Baptist Health spokeswoman Julie Garrison.

The hospital, a joint venture between Encompass Health and Baptist Health, is expected to begin providing inpatient rehabilitation services in the fourth quarter of 2023, according to a news release.

The new inpatient rehabilitation hospital is estimated to cost $41.7 million, according to Julie Garrison.

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Dr. Jody Prather, Baptist Health's chief strategy and marketing officer, said Tuesday that "as Jefferson County remains one of the fastest growing counties in the state with an increased demand for rehabilitation services, the addition of this highly specialized inpatient rehabilitation hospital will meet a critical need in our local communities."

"The new freestanding hospital will improve patient access to rehabilitation services and allow us to be a regional destination for care, expanding beyond the Baptist Health network to accept and support patients from many facilities in the region that do not have inpatient rehabilitation services," Prather said.

Baptist Health currently has nine hospitals and more than 2,700 licensed beds across its system. Meanwhile, Encompass Health is the nation's largest provider of inpatient rehabilitative health care services.

Troy Decker, president of Encompass Health's central region, said that "we are excited to expand and grow our rehabilitation services in Kentucky with Baptist Health, a forward-thinking and well‑respected healthcare leader that has been a premier provider of acute inpatient rehabilitation to Louisville residents and beyond for more than 40 years."

“Through the new inpatient rehabilitation hospital, we will work together to provide our patients with coordinated and connected care that meets them where they are in their healthcare journeys and makes a positive difference in their lives," Decker said.

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The inpatient hospital will serve patients recovering from debilitating illnesses and injuries, including strokes and other neurological disorders, brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, amputations and complex orthopedic conditions.

The hospital will offer physical, occupational and speech therapies "to restore functional ability and quality of life" on top of 24-hour nursing care, according to a release.

This is not the first time Baptist Health is announcing a new facility this year. In January, the hospital system announced plans to build a new outpatient care center near its Kresge Way campus in eastern Louisville. Baptist Health also announced an emergency room and urgent care clinic for Jeffersonville, Indiana, in March.

Contact Ben Tobin at bjtobin@gannett.com and 502-377-5675 or follow on Twitter @Ben__Tobin.