Close to Home: Receive Excellent Health Care in Southern Indiana
Residents here have access to personalized and top-quality health care in Southern Indiana, thanks to the region’s exceptional providers.
Expanding Access to Health Care in Southern Indiana
Kathleen Exline, chief administrative officer for Norton Clark and Norton Scott hospitals and Norton Medical Center, helps keep care close to home for those in Southern Indiana.
“Not all patients wish to travel to Louisville for their health care,” she says. “The Norton Healthcare family of hospitals has expanded access to complex regional care and specialists in Southern Indiana. Our mission, vision and values are based on respect for every person and a commitment to providing high-quality health care to all.”
Each hospital or care setting within the Norton Healthcare family is connected through Epic, an electronic medical record.
“The system creates ease of use for providers communicating with the hospitals and vice versa,” Exline says. “This benefits patients by allowing them to be engaged in their care. Epic is a one-stop shop for making appointments, viewing lab results and care plans, messaging providers and keeping up with their care plan in real time. Health care is a team approach, and Epic lets the necessary players on the team know what’s happening.”
Norton Healthcare also invested in upgrades to cardiac services with a state-of-the-art cardiac catheterization lab and new CT scanner at Norton Clark in Jeffersonville.
“Among other benefits, the technology provides faster results for patients having heart attacks and potentially less invasive intervention,” Exline says. “This is a game changer for many patients.”
Beyond technological advancements, Exline says it’s the relationships throughout the integrated health care system that really make a difference in patient outcomes. “We are enthusiastic about the implications of this for the community.”
Looking Forward to Growth
Growth is the operative word at Baptist Health Floyd in New Albany.
“We’re moving into the future, growing to provide services and become a regional referral center,” says Mike Schroyer, president of Baptist Health Floyd. “We’ve recruited primary care as well as specialty physicians and surgeons, so many things people used to have to go to Louisville for they can now get right here.”
Growth has also meant adding space, including 32 additional beds, and renovating and expanding operating room space, part of a $65 million investment to create capacity and accommodate increasing volumes.
The hospital is now licensed for 268 beds, 19 of which are obstetrics beds, and has added a Level 2 NICU with six beds, with plans to double the size of it.
Mike Schroyer
“More mothers with high-risk pregnancies are choosing to have their babies here. We’re very proud of that,” Schroyer says.
“We also opened our first freestanding emergency department and urgent care center, which is one way of decreasing health care costs. Many people use the emergency room for primary care, but emergency room costs are higher. Here, when a patient comes in, we determine which level of care they need, and they go down the appropriate care path that can be charged accordingly.”
Baptist Health’s array of cardiac clinics and services includes a structural heart program that allows for less invasive procedures for heart valves and other devices. The hospital has recruited more neurologists, neurosurgeons and thoracic surgeons, meaning more complex surgeries can happen here. Over the past two years, it has gone from zero surgical robots to nine, including da Vinci robots used for abdominal, thoracic and urological surgery.
“I want our community to think of Baptist Health Floyd as a place to receive high-quality, safe, compassionate care and have a good experience doing so,” Schroyer says. “We strive each and every day to improve what we do.”
Driving Results in the Region
Dennis Medley, CEO of PMC Regional Hospital, says what sets the hospital apart from others is that it is physician-owned.
“We’re in partnership with SCA (Surgery Center Affiliates of America). By partnering with physicians, this brings what both payers and the government have been looking for from health care providers – competitive pricing, high quality and innovation,” he says. “The physicians who have ownership and the best interest in it help drive all those results.”
The 19-bed New Albany-based hospital offers inpatient and outpatient care in specialties ranging from general surgery to urology, orthopedics, ophthalmology and gynecology, among others.
The hospital also performs a lot of outpatient surgery procedures and offers pain management services. Medley says a new provider has begun offering cardiovascular procedures like pacemakers, which has been well-received by patients.
“Our partnership with SCA has been very successful, and we are looking to continually expand services and care that we provide in the
community,” Medley says.
Get to Know Southern Indiana
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