LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Walmart announced Thursday it will commit the next $3 million it raises in the Louisville area to support the Norton Children’s Hospital “Just for Kids” Critical Care Center.
This amount, which will be given to the Children’s Hospital Foundation, will bring Walmart’s total support of the hospital to nearly $8 million since 2007. Walmart previously has supported the hospital’s trauma program and imaging services. The donations come through Walmart’s participation in Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals and is a result of individual Walmart store campaigns in the Louisville area.
The “Just for Kids” Critical Care Center is the only pediatric intensive care unit in the western half of Kentucky and Southern Indiana. Every year, an average of 2,200 children up to age 18 need the specialized care of the “Just for Kids” Critical Care Center. These children have experienced severe injuries or child abuse, had complex surgeries or have diagnoses that include severe infections, life-threatening respiratory failure and complications from diabetes.
“Walmart has been a leader in supporting Norton Children’s Hospital since 2007,” said Lynnie Meyer, Ed.D., R.N., CFRE, senior vice president and chief development officer, Norton Healthcare. “The entire Walmart organization has seen the importance of this advanced specialty care for children and has truly helped us make it possible.”
Pediatric intensive care units offer a wide range of services and include specialties such as emergency, general surgery, intensive care, neurology and neurosurgery, orthopedics, endocrinology, cardiology, radiology, infectious disease, pulmonary, pharmacology/toxicology, nephrology, oncology, pastoral care, child life and expressive therapy, and rehabilitation services.
“The kind of high-tech, high-touch care we can provide for a critically ill or injured child requires many different resources, from specialists to equipment and even facilities,” Meyer said. “Walmart’s support allows us to ensure we have what is necessary to take care of children of all sizes with all kinds of critical and complex issues, whenever we’re needed.”
“We at Walmart believe that our success should be used to help others,” said David Davidson, Walmart Louisville Market manager. “Norton Children’s Hospital provides great care to children here, and nationally Walmart has provided $1 billion in support of Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. We’re pleased to do our part in this community.”
The “Just for Kids” Critical Care Center will soon receive some upgrades, made possible by Walmart, as part of Norton Healthcare’s $78.3 million renovation project at Norton Children’s Hospital. The Children’s Hospital Foundation has committed to funding $20 million and, with help from donors including Walmart, has been able to fund $14 million thus far.
The unit will be updated from top to bottom with new flooring, doors, windows, lighting and furniture that will provide a more comfortable space for families to stay with their children. A new family waiting area will give families access to laundry facilities, a kitchenette, quiet space and active space for a break from the stress of being in the hospital. Rooms that currently are separated with curtains will be enclosed to create more private spaces. The renovation also will create better consultation space for staff, rooms for physicians who must be in the unit for 24 hours, a new nurses’ station, additional storage and more convenient supply areas.
The overall renovation project has included construction of the S. Randolph Scheen Family Conference Center, a medical/surgical unit on the sixth floor and a new entrance off of the parking garage. Construction of the Jennifer Lawrence Cardiac Intensive Care Unit currently is underway, as is a project to renovate a portion of the neonatal intensive care unit and the hospital’s lobby. Work will begin on the “Just for Kids” Critical Care Center in early 2020. The entire hospital project will be completed in 2022.
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