'An amazing service for Bullitt County': UofL South Hospital celebrates massive expansion
After breaking ground in 2022, UofL Health – South Hospital in Bullitt County will open a massive new expansion Monday, roughly tripling the size of the facility expands from a medical center into a full hospital and broadens its health care offerings.
UofL Health will celebrate the opening of the 100,000-square-foot expansion, which will now offer in-patient services centered around heart health, with a community breakfast at 8 a.m. and a ribbon-cutting ceremony at 10 a.m. Gov. Andy Beshear is also expected to attend.
"This community has needed and wanted services in their community and it has been such a blessing for UofL Health to be able to provide resources of the highest of quality ... it's just gonna be an amazing service for Bullitt County and I can't wait," said Dorie Shelburne, CEO of UofL Health – South Hospital.
The new area of the hospital will have 40 beds — 10 of which will be dedicated to the intensive care unit — but space exists to add 20 more beds if needed. The facility has also hired approximately 150 on-campus employees, with an additional 50 added from contracted services.
With the nearest in-patient facilities — including Norton Audubon Hospital and UofL Health – Jewish Hospital — more than 20 minutes away, Shelburne said University of Louisville Health saw a need for services for more than 80,000 residents of Bullitt County to get extensive care and took action.
Heart disease is the leading cause of death among most people in the country, with one person dying every 33 seconds from cardiovascular disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2021, approximately 695,000 people — or one in five — died of heart disease in the U.S.
Along with in-patient care, the hospital will now have a catheterization lab with STEMI care — a type of heart attack. Shelburne said that means emergency service management personnel will be able to perform an EKG on site, send the results to the hospital and get the patient treated once they get to the facility.
"If they're having a heart attack ... the patient will be brought by EMS directly to the cath lab and we'll be able to open that vessel," Shelburne said. "[Today] when that happens, we have to drive another 20 minutes to the nearest hospital. So we'll be saving that time, and really, time in a heart attack situation or stroke situation is life."
Shelburne said the hospital is considering adding more services to the campus in the future, including cancer treatments and mental health support.
Reach Ana Rocío Álvarez Bríñez at abrinez@gannett.com; follow her on X, formerly Twitter at @SoyAnaAlvarez.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: UofL – Health South Hospital adds services, space in Bullitt County
