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 Novak Center for Children’s Health is scheduled to open to patients in July 2018. The eight-story, 176,000-square-foot building is the first new health care facility in the Louisville Medical Center in nearly a decade.

“David Novak and his family continually demonstrate their strong commitment to the well-being of the children of Kentucky and beyond,” said Gregory C. Postel, MD, interim president of the University of Louisville. “It is not just symbolic, but appropriate that one of the area’s premiere pediatric health care centers be named in their honor.”

In addition to financial support toward the construction of the Novak Center for Children’s Health, the Novak Family and the Lift-A-Life Foundation have been instrumental in the creation and growth of the Wendy Novak Diabetes Center, which will have its outpatient services based in the new facility.

“At the University of Louisville, and through its primary children’s partner in Norton Healthcare, we have some of the premiere health care providers in the nation,” Novak said. “We now will have the world-class outpatient facility to match the level of care our children receive.”

One of the significant advantages of the new facility will be the ability for patients to see all their childhood health providers in a single location. Currently, patients and their caregivers oftentimes must travel to multiple buildings in the medical center to see providers.

The story of and his family demonstrates the significant change the new facility will make in the lives of patients and their families and caregivers. Since 2006, he has been fighting a rare brain disorder that has required him seeing providers in hematology, ophthalmology, neurology and more.

“Everyone person who has helped provide for Noah through the years has been exceptional,” said Geneva Barone, Noah’s mother. “At times, it has been inconvenient having to go to the varying locations to see everyone. To have everyone in a single location, and knowing that we will not have to travel throughout the medical center is wonderful. While everyone makes us feel like family, to have a single location to visit will be like having a medical home.”

“We are building the future of pediatric health care right here in Louisville,” said Charles Woods, MD, interim chair of the UofL Department of Pediatrics. “This facility will enable us to transform how we deliver care by having our multidisciplinary teams located in one space so they can meet simultaneously with the patients and their families. This will eliminate substantial inconvenient delays and obstacles in our patients receiving the very best of care in the most time way possible.”

David Novak served as CEO of Louisville-based Yum! Brands from 1999 to 2016. He and his family established the Wendy Novak Diabetes Center in 2015. 

Check out video from the naming ceremony: