Norton Healthcare opens cutting-edge laboratory providing increased efficiency, quality and turnaround times, benefiting medical providers and patients

46,000-square-foot facility houses expanded laboratory services and technology for CPA Lab, a division of Norton Healthcare

Norton Healthcare recently opened its relocated and expanded CPA Lab, a division of Norton Healthcare. Located in 46,000 square feet of space at the former Hikes Point Kmart site at 2935 Breckenridge Lane, the new location has enabled the organization to consolidate and enhance clinical laboratory resources, technology and services under one roof.

“This is an exciting opportunity that has allowed us to expand diagnostic services for our community and reduce wait times for our customers, which includes providers and patients,” said Russell F. Cox, president and CEO, Norton Healthcare. “Since acquiring CPA Lab in 2006, we have grown immensely and outgrew the previous site in Jeffersontown. This new facility allows us to bring areas such as microbiology and immunology that support lab services, but were previously housed elsewhere, together with the lab under one roof. Now patient specimens transported from client offices are processed as soon as they arrive at our new location. This will decrease turnaround time and providers will receive lab results quicker, ultimately allowing patients to receive treatment faster.”

CPA Lab provides comprehensive anatomic services (evaluation of tissue specimens, including biopsies and surgical resections) and clinical services (analysis of body fluid samples, such as blood and urine, as well as organism identification with antibiotic susceptibility). More than 20 board-certified subspecialized pathologists offer expertise in hematopathology; cytopathology; and molecular, gastrointestinal, gynecologic, genitourinary and neuropathology interpretation.

CPA Lab will support all Norton Healthcare facilities in Greater Louisville and a total of 800-plus medical partners throughout Kentucky and Southern Indiana.

“This move has allowed us to enhance our laboratory services with new and improved services and technology to help us better serve our patients and clients,” said Steve Heilman, M.D., senior vice president and chief health innovation officer, Norton Healthcare. “Increased efficiency through automation, while improving quality and turnaround time, is a major component of these improvements and additions.

“Select testing we previously sent to outside specialized labs is now incorporated into CPA Lab. One highlight includes genomic testing, also known as next generation sequencing, which can quickly determine what drives a tumor’s growth, giving specialists critical information to make the best possible treatment decisions and deliver treatment using the most effective tools,” Dr. Heilman said. “By housing this state-of-the-art technology within our lab, we are able to provide results up to three weeks faster, which means patients diagnosed with cancer may begin tailored lifesaving treatment sooner.”

In 2020, CPA Lab performed more than 2 million tests. Collectively, seven Norton Healthcare laboratories perform about 6 million tests per year. In 2020, this number included 197,000 COVID-19 tests. As testing over the past five years has increased by 100%, the new lab was built with future growth in mind

Construction on this project began in July 2020, however, planning began more than 10 years ago. The $20.5 million project features $7 million in new equipment. A portion of the funding for a genomics lab was received as a grant through the Norton Healthcare Foundation gifted by the Steven Vanover Foundation.

CPA Lab is licensed by the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services and is approved to bill Medicare and Medicaid. It runs a strict in-house quality control and quality management program and maintains a state-of-the-art computer system that allows for generating reports based on specific criteria, such as diagnosis, patient age and clinician specialty. Statistical data generated by CPA Lab is made available to government and third-party insurers and used to compare CPA Lab with national and regional laboratories.

In total, CPA Lab employs 270 team members, including physicians, laboratory specimen processors and phlebotomists, medical laboratory scientists and technicians, histotechnologists and technicians, cytotechnologists, transcriptionists, and billing and client services representatives.

Located in the building now known as Breckenridge Center, the new CPA Lab is conveniently located next to Norton Healthcare Express Services, a drive-thru outpatient medical facility offering diagnostic testing, vaccinations and lab work with a provider referral.

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