Louisville, Ky.-based Baptist Health and Birmingham, Ala.-based Encompass Health are teaming up to build and operate a 40-bed inpatient rehabilitation hospital in Louisville after receiving a certificate of need.
The new facility will be a joint venture between the two systems. It will replace Baptist Health's current 29-bed unit on the Louisville campus, according to an Oct. 19 press release from the two systems.
The 29-bed facility will be repurposed, a Baptist Health spokesperson told the Courier Journal.
The new hospital will cost about $41.7 million, the Courier Journal reported. It will help patients recovering from debilitating illnesses and injuries. Additionally, it will have 24-hour nursing care, as well as physical, occupational and speech therapies.
"As Jefferson County remains one of the fastest growing counties in the state with an increased demand for rehabilitation services, the addition of this highly specialized inpatient rehabilitation hospital will meet a critical need in our local communities," said Jody Prather, MD, chief strategy and marketing officer at Baptist Health. "The new freestanding hospital will improve patient access to rehabilitation services and allow us to be a regional destination for care, expanding beyond the Baptist Health network to accept and support patients from many facilities in the region that do not have inpatient rehabilitation services."
Baptist Health is the largest nonprofit health system in Kentucky, and Encompass Health is the biggest provider of inpatient rehabilitation healthcare services in the U.S.