Mike Materna and Chuck Denk of UofL’s Department for Planning, Design and Construction, recently released an update to campus staff on the progress of the building, slated to open in July 2018.

The first new health care delivery facility constructed in the Louisville Medical Center in nearly a decade, the Novak Center for Children’s Health is a 176,000-square-foot building that will be home to the general, specialty and subspecialty pediatrics programs at UofL. This includes faculty physicians from UofL’s as well as other departments throughout the UofL School of Medicine, including neurology, oncology-hematology, cardiology, surgery, ophthalmology and more. Faculty physicians at UofL practice with .

The outpatient services of the Wendy Novak Diabetes Center, currently housed in the Children’s Hospital Foundation Building, will move to the facility. Norton Children’s Hospital also will provide care within the new building, including infusion and laboratory services.

Currently, the structure has many interior walls and floors in place, and finishes such as wall tiles and flooring are being laid. Electrical wiring is being installed, and interior painting is underway. A pedway bridge, linking the new building to the existing UofL Physicians Outpatient Center and the Chestnut Street Garage, is now partially enclosed and is being finished out as well. Messer is the construction manager for the project.

“We have made a lot of progress,” Materna said. “Just one year ago we were literally still ‘playing in the sand,’ as I called it, working on digging out the basement and the steam tunnel integration.

“We have hundreds of people working on this site every day no matter what the weather is. They have done a great job to get us to where we are now.”

Approximately 500 employees, residents and students will inhabit the building, and UofL officials expect nearly 120,000 patient visits per year in the new facility.

“We are providing a new medical home for our pediatric patients and their caregivers,” said Gerard Rabalais, MD, acting CEO of UofL Physicians. “It is a home where we are bringing together nearly all of the services we provide to children in an outpatient setting with a true multidisciplinary approach.”

The Novak Center for Children’s Health is named in recognition of the outstanding support provided by David Novak, his family and the Lift-A-Life Foundation. Novak retired as chairman of Yum! Brands in 2000.

“David Novak and his family are helping us build the future of pediatric health care here in Louisville,” said Charles Woods, MD, chair of the Department of Pediatrics and UofL Physicians-Pediatrics. “With their support, we will transform how we deliver care, with health care teams located in one space so they can meet simultaneously with patients and their families and avoid unnecessary inconvenience and delays.”

The Novak Center for Children’s Health is located on South Preston Street between East Chestnut and Muhammad Ali Boulevard.

The 171,000-square-foot facility will be home to the general pediatrics and the specialty and subspecialty children’s programs of the university. This will include not only caregivers from the Department of Pediatrics, but also from other departments including neurology, ophthalmology and surgery.

“This facility symbolizes the growth of our efforts to meet the health care needs of the children of Louisville, the region, and beyond,” said Gregory C. Postel, MD, interim president of UofL. “Our breadth of services has grown to the point that it makes sense for us to have our own facility, as opposed to locations scattered throughout the Louisville Medical Center.”

“For decades we have provided high quality care to our patients. Now we will be able to bring an equally high quality experience to them and their caregivers,” said Gerard Rabalais, MD, interim CEO of University of Louisville Physicians and former chair of the Department of Pediatrics. “Further, we truly will be able to provide them with a medical home … A home where we are bringing together nearly all of the services we provide to children in an outpatient setting with a truly multidisciplinary approach. This is the future of health care delivery, especially for our children.”

The outpatient services of the Wendy Novak Diabetes Center also will be located in the building. Norton Children’s Hospital also will be providing care within the building, including infusion and laboratory services.

UofL officials anticipate nearly 140,000 patient visits per year. Additionally, approximately 500 employees and learners will inhabit the building.

These people will be there not only to provide patient care, but also because of the educational and training mission of the Health Sciences Center. The multidisciplinary approach to the care provided will carry over into this mission as well.

“Our thinking about how we educate our future health care providers has changed significantly in recent years,” said Toni Ganzel, MD, interim executive dean for the UofL Health Sciences Center. “We no longer provide information in very discrete silos, but rather integrate the information in a multidisciplinary manner. This is applicable not only in the classroom, but also with our clinical training. We have come to understand how important it is for the surgeon to talk with the general physician and the nursing staff and nutritionists so that we have a team approach to patient-centered care.”

“One of our guiding principles in the design and construction of this building is how to make the delivery of care more convenient for our patients,” said Charles Woods, MD, interim chair of the Department of Pediatrics. “By bringing together the specialists who focus on children into a single location, we hope it will transform how care is delivered and education and training are provided. It is very exciting to see this coming together.”

The building is scheduled to open in July 2018.

More photos from today’s ceremony are .��

Video from today’s event is below: 

The AAP is a professional membership organization of 64,000 primary care pediatricians, pediatric medical sub-specialists and pediatric surgical specialists dedicated to the health, safety and well-being of infants, children, adolescents and young adults.

The SOEPHE supports development high quality practice guidelines for children’s health care and fosters informed use of data to improve the health of children.  It is composed of AAP members who practice or have interests in the fields of public health and epidemiology.

Woods is board certified in pediatrics and pediatric infectious diseases. He is Associate Chair of the UofL Department of Pediatrics and director of the department’s Child & Adolescent Health Research Design & Support Unit. He has been at UofL since 2006.

In addition to the AAP, his professional affiliations include the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society, Infectious Diseases Society of America, Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America and HIV Medicine Association. He also has been elected to membership in the American Pediatric Society and Society for Pediatric Research.

He earned his bachelor’s degree from Samford University and his medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine. He completed a pediatric residency followed by a pediatric infectious diseases fellowship at Texas Children’s Hospital. He later earned a master’s degree in epidemiology from Wake Forest University.

Woods practices with .