Siloam Springs Memorial Sees More Patients in ’98

A look at the number of patients using Siloam Springs Memorial Hospital’s services gives a good indication of why hospital officials are pondering a possible expansion. In the last fiscal year, the hospital admitted 2,989 patients, up from 2,682 the previous year and treated 11,775 people in its emergency room, an increase from 11,191 the year before. Doctors delivered 241 babies, compared to 208 the previous year, and 1,046 patients were treated at the hospital’s ambulatory surgery department, up from 811 the previous year.

Only in the home health program, in which health care workers visit patients in their homes, was there a decline – 10,621 visits, compared with 12,684 the previous year. But other hospitals across the country have also experienced declines in their home health programs, the result, in most cases, of decreased federal funding.

Siloam Springs’ home health program serves patients in both Arkansas and Oklahoma.

Licensed for 72 beds, the city-owned Siloam Springs Memorial Hospital currently uses 53 beds. In December 2000, the hospital will celebrate its 50th anniversary.

Its medical staff includes 27 active staff physicians, 20 courtesy staff, 23 consulting staff, five dental staff members and three full-time emergency room physicians. A new obstetrician/gynecologist, the second for the hospital, is expected to open a practice in August. Physicians on staff include a pediatrician, three internists, an orthopedist, general surgeons, three ophthalmologists, an anesthesiologist and 11 family practice doctors.

City and hospital officials are currently considering a 40,000-SF expansion and renovation to the facility.