Norton Healthcare’s $29.8 million retail pharmacy and central-fill operation in Louisville, Ky., is now operational.
The health system celebrated the pharmacy’s grand opening Aug. 13, though the facility opened to patients July 20.
The pharmacy, staffed by 30 employees, serves as home to Norton Healthcare’s centralized prescription fulfillment operation, using automation to prepare up to 7,000 prescriptions per eight-hour shift.
The location is the first Norton Healthcare and Norton Children’s retail pharmacy to offer home delivery, available at no additional charge to patients with a Kentucky or Indiana address. Pharmacists continue to oversee all prescription preparation, even as the centralized model shifts routine fulfillment away from hospital-campus pharmacies.
“By preparing the majority of our retail prescriptions centrally … pharmacy team members working at our retail pharmacy locations on our hospital campuses can spend more time focusing on preparing our patients for a safe discharge,” Amanda Castle, system vice president of Norton Pharmacy, said in an Aug. 13 news release.
Norton Healthcare says the new infrastructure is among the largest centralized pharmacy fulfillment operations of its kind among U.S. health systems.
Louisville, Ky.-based Baptist Health opened its own central pharmacy services center in 2024, capable of filling 14,000 prescriptions every 10 hours.
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