Big changes are happening here!

Kids grow. Kids’ needs grow. So we are growing too! We are in the midst of a $78.3 million construction project. Here’s what you need to know to get around our hospital campus.

Find out more

About Norton Children’s Hospital

With a heritage of pediatric medical service that began over 125 years ago, Norton Children’s Hospital is today widely recognized as a leading pediatric hospital in Kentucky and the Midwest. The 267-bed Norton Children’s Hospital is the region’s only full-service, free-standing pediatric hospital, with Louisville’s only Level I Pediatric Trauma Center.

Norton Children’s Access Center: (502) 629-KIDS
Open 24 hours

Norton Children’s Hospital provides a complete range of medical services dedicated to compassionate skilled care for all children, without regard to their families’ ability to pay. The hospital also provides a pediatric intensive care unit and one of America’s largest Level IV neonatal intensive care units.

As the primary pediatric teaching facility for the University of Louisville School of Medicine, Norton Children’s Hospital enjoys a strong partnership with the medical academic community.

Norton Children’s Hospital and its regional facilities serve over 170,000 patients each year, with more than 86,000 pediatric emergency care visits and over 12,000 pediatric surgeries. The hospital includes such distinguished units as the Addison Jo Blair Cancer Care Center, which cares for more than 650 children annually and has one of the nation’s largest sickle cell anemia treatment programs. It includes the Norton Children’s Heart Institute, which performs more than 450 heart surgeries and over 12,000 noninvasive diagnostic studies each year. It also is home to the Wendy Novak Diabetes Care Center, the region’s only dedicated center for children with Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes.

Here you will find the highly skilled, compassionate and advanced medical care that is “Just for Kids.”

Norton Children’s Hospital visitation guidelines

The following guidelines help support the care and safety of patients:

• Up to four primary caregivers will be given wristbands upon admission and will have 24/7 access to their child.
  • Primary caregivers must be age 18 or older unless they are the parents/guardians of the patient.
  • Sleeping arrangements for those with 24-hour access vary from unit to unit. Most rooms have a fold-out chair or a daybed for at least one person. (No one may sleep on the floor, as this poses a safety risk.)
• Secondary caregivers and others may visit between 9 a.m. and 9 p.m.
  • Secondary caregivers and visitors will need to check in at a welcome desk upon arrival to obtain a visitor badge
• We ask that all caregivers and visitors be healthy — free from fever, cough, cold or stomach virus symptoms and living with people who also are free from virus symptoms. Visitors can unintentionally spread germs if someone in their household is ill.
• We ask all caregivers to wash their hands often, especially before and after visiting a patient. During peak times of illness in the community, children under age 14 are asked not to visit intensive care units.

Special circumstances

Social workers are active members of the care team and will work with families who may have extreme and extenuating circumstances that permit an exception. They will consult with families, care teams and our infection prevention department to make consistent decisions regarding exceptions.

Ways friends and family can share their support

• Video calls using FaceTime, Skype, etc.
• Greeting cards online or by mail
• Ordering a surprise to be delivered from the hospital gift shop at (502) 629-6120.

Pastoral visitors from a home church

Clergy may visit during normal visitation hours. Exceptions can be made for community clergy to visit outside of normal visitation hours.

These changes provide patients and families with balanced emotional support from friends and family while providing infectionprevention benefits by decreasing patients’ exposure to germs.

The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit has separate guidelines that will be explained upon admission.