Jefferson County and Southern Indiana residents have an opportunity to directly impact the services Norton Healthcare provides by participating in its online health needs survey. Vice President of Planning and Business Analysis Kelly Pyzocha said their responses help create or expand health care services in areas that need them most.

The confidential questionnaire takes five to 10 minutes to complete and will remain open through the end of March. It is available in English and Spanish.

“The goal is to understand people’s perception of the health of the community, number one,” Pyzocha said. “Number two, for them to be able to convey to us what they feel their needs are, and really we want to go above and beyond health care.”

Pyzocha said the survey led to facilities like the Norton West Louisville Hospital, which will open in November. The facility will be the first full hospital in the West End in over a century.

“Through this survey, we want to identify what are those other areas that we can impact, to try to help the community live a healthy life, to meet the community where they are,” Pyzocha said.

To further meet the community’s health care needs, the nonprofit hospital will also conduct interviews with several stakeholders and city leaders to get their insight, Pyzocha said.

Norton will then compare statewide health statistics to local records, including life expectancy, food deserts, drug-related deaths, suicide rates and chronic diseases.

Every three years, hospitals like Norton Healthcare, University of Louisville Health and Baptist Health are required by law to do community health needs assessments that are open for community members to complete.

Baptist Health also plans to release their own assessment later this year. UofL Health plans to begin collecting data for their survey this fall to release their assessment by June 2025, officials said.

Reporter Morgan Watkins contributed to this story.