The Home of the Innocents announced construction Monday to add 50 new beds to their medically-complex care facility.
The Louisville-based non-profit runs the only pediatric skilled nursing facility assisting children and young adults in the state. The Kentucky General Assembly awarded $30 million to build the added capacity, requiring an equal match from the Home of the Innocents.
The facility currently houses 76 medically complex children and young adults who have an average of 26 diagnoses each, said Board Chair Greg Virgin. The new beds allow residents who would have aged out of the program at 21 to remain in place, where they can stay in a familiar setting with staff who have cared for them and their unique conditions for years.
“More than a quarter of [our residents] are over the age of 21 or older. Within the next few years, this segment will increase to a third,” Virgin said. “I cannot stress enough the importance of this expansion, or my gratitude towards all who have made it possible.”
The $30 million for the Louisville project was part of an omnibus $2.7 billion one-time spending bill passed last year. A significant portion of that spending went toward Louisville-specific projects.
The Home of the Innocents expansion was not included in the original spending bill, but made it into the Senate’s version of the legislation. GOP Sen. Julie Raque Adams of Louisville said she received letters from every board member of the Home of the Innocents, advocating for the funding.
“We always talk about how the budget is the ultimate policy document. It really shows where our values are with those tax dollars,” Adams said. “And I can't think of a more deserving organization to put these tax dollars to work.”
CEO Paul Robinson thanked the governor’s office, saying expanding the center required significant regulatory change. Robinson said that, for decades, people would age out of their program and pass away shortly after, unable to find the specialty care they needed.
He said the relief from parents who no longer have to think about moving their children out of their facility was palpable when he was able to share the news.
“What they had heard us talking about, theorizing, conceptualizing was finally going to happen. It was for sure going to happen. And then there was a pause. And then that pause became tears and sighs and just the outpouring of emotion because all of their concerns about the day that their child would discharge from our care and go somewhere else, and that their child could potentially become one of those statistics … all of that left,” Robinson said.
The expanded facility is scheduled to open in two years.
State government and politics reporting is supported in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
