Women’s Hospital Nudging into Market

Women’s health physicians will become more valuable in Northwest Arkansas when Johnson’s largest medical venture, Willow Creek Women’s Hospital, opens to patients in late January.

In such a tight labor market, the hospital opening will push existing hospitals to keep their staffs satisfied.

Planning to open Willow Creek with a staff of about 90, CEO Charles Long said applications for hospital practice privileges had been requested by 150 physicians in the area. About 60 of those applications have been processed and approved.

Willow Creek will have an open medical staff — many physicians will perform only some of their procedures at the hospital.

Two obstetric and gynecological practices, Fayetteville’s Parkhill Clinic for Women and Springdale’s Northwest Arkansas OB-GYN, will move to the second floor of the new building. Both clinics, in association with MediSphere Health Partners Inc. of Nashville, Tenn., helped create Willow Creek.

The ground floor has 20 private suites, each built for accommodating labor, delivery, recovery and postpartum birthing stages; four operating rooms; and six postsurgical suites.

Long said he hopes the hospital will deliver about 2,000 babies annually in the 90,000-SF building, off U.S. Highway 71.

Area hospitals don’t yet know how Willow Creek’s presence will affect business.

“We think the impact will be minimal,” said Bill Bradley, CEO of Northwest Health System. “From a financial standpoint, it’s not a major blow to [Northwest Medical Center or Bates Medical Center].”

“I don’t know what kind of delivery shift there will be,” said Linda Harwell, Northwest Medical Center’s director of ob. “I’m certain that we’ll see a drop in volume, but we don’t know how significant that will be.”

Staff turnover might be the biggest obstacle facing existing hospitals.

Three ob physicians delivering the majority of their patients’ babies at Northwest Medical have said they will move most of their work to Willow Creek, Harwell said, and two other doctors will split their work between Northwest Medical and Willow Creek. However, Harwell is still waiting to find out how many nurses and support staff will follow the doctors.

Certain measures have been taken to maintain key staff members at the hospitals, Bradley said, though he wouldn’t provide details. He said he wasn’t worried about a major staff turnover because most Northwest Health employees “prefer the security of a full-service hospital.”

Dr. Scott Bailey, a Parkhill physician, said area doctors would be attracted to Willow Creek because the physicians comprise the hospital’s board of directors, and there will be direct physician input on every decision made.

“The physicians direct what I do,” Long said.

The amount of business Willow Creek absorbs from other hospitals depends on which insurance carriers sign with the hospital. Long said that it was too early to name any potential contracts but that Medicaid and Medicare would be accepted at Willow Creek.

Some of the initial services to be offered by Willow Creek include mammography, plastic surgery and various outpatient procedures.