Southern Indiana Health Care Supports Healthy Communities

Norton Clark Hospital

Southern Indiana is home to several top-notch health care facilities working to serve residents’ needs. These include Baptist Health Floyd, Norton Clark Hospital and PMC Regional Hospital. Ahead, meet three medical professionals who are making a difference in people’s lives. 

Dr. Richard Phillips 

Baptist Health Floyd 

“What gets me up in the morning is the ability to have an impact on processes and be a change agent – to have the opportunity to put processes in place to support our doctors so they can effect change in their patients’ lives,” says Dr. Richard Phillips, chief medical officer for Baptist Health Floyd. 

Phillips says the hospital works to speak to each patient’s mind, body and soul when caring for them in their time of need. 

“The beauty is it doesn’t cost much other than time,” he says. “My job is to put our providers in a position where they can have more time with patients.” 

Phillips earned an undergraduate degree from Harvard, where he also completed his residency in emergency medicine. He earned his medical degree and MBA from the University of Chicago, and after practicing in the Chicago area for several years, he moved to Baptist Health Floyd in 2023. 

“My entire life I’ve lived in big cities. I had not expected all that Southern Indiana has to offer,” he says. 

Phillips shares that the region’s food options, outdoor activities and low crime rate make it a great place to live. 

“While the hospital brought me here, it’s the people and the community that have kept me here,” he says. 

Dr. Rob McKnight 

Norton Medical Center, Jeffersonville Commons 

Dr. Rob McKnight wears many hats beyond his role as emergency medicine physician at Norton Medical Center’s Jeffersonville Commons location, which is integrated with Norton Clark Hospital. As managing partner for his physician group, he led the recent opening of an eight-bed, 24/7 emergency department. 

“This freestanding emergency department can see patients from pediatrics to geriatrics,” he says. “We are on a major expressway that connects directly with one of Norton Clark Hospital’s larger regional accepting hospitals to facilitate subspecialty care within a matter of minutes.” 

Norton Clark offers opportunities health care professionals might not find in larger cities. 

“There’s a lot of ability to branch out to your interests beyond clinical medicine,” says McKnight, who teaches students in his facility and offers a class in wilderness and environmental medicine at Sullivan University in Louisville. For the past 10 years, he has assisted local police during critical incidents, and he manages an EMS service in Clark County. 

McKnight grew up in New Albany, went to medical school in Indiana and completed his residency in Louisville. With his family nearby, he says this is where he wants to be. 

“It’s been a fulfilling, full-circle experience to come back to the place where I grew up and to practice in the community,” he says. 

Dennis Medley 

PMC Regional Hospital 

Dennis Medley has served as CEO of PMC Regional Hospital in New Albany for nearly 15 years, arriving not long after the specialty hospital was founded in 2008. 

A native of Louisville, Medley says his prior health care experience had mostly been with large systems. 

“This was a big change going to a small physician-owned hospital,” he says. “I was drawn to it because of that. It’s very entrepreneurial.” 

He says his job is diverse and requires a mix of keeping the pulse of clinical operations, business development and more. 

“The services we provide are unique,” Medley says. “People are trusting their care to us, so we have to have a very high level of organizational effectiveness.” 

Medley says the Southern Indiana/Louisville metro area is great for families, with outdoor recreation opportunities and a growing population and economy. 

“You have all the ingredients,” he says.