New West Louisville hospital offers patients better access to healthcare – and hope

When Regina-Riley Smith has a doctor’s appointment, it usually means having to take the entire day off from work. In order to make it to her appointment on time, she has to leave 45 minutes early to drive from her home in West Louisville’s Shawnee neighborhood to her primary care physician’s office on North Hurstbourne Parkway. By the time she returns home, hours have passed. “It’s a long drive, but when you’ve got a good doctor, you go with it,” said Regina, who is a long-time patient of Crystal D. Narcisse, M.D., internal medicine/pediatrics specialist at Norton Community Medical Associates – Hurstbourne. Regina, 47, has lived in West Louisville for 20 years, and is treated for high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, asthma and acid reflux. She has routine appointments with her primary care physician and rheumatologist every six months. All three generations of her family – including her husband, daughters and granddaughters – are patients of Norton Healthcare, all with their own unique healthcare needs. “My daughter has severe asthma, and we were having to make regular visits to the ICU,” said Regina. “In an emergency, it would take us 15 minutes to get downtown (to Norton…
Read More