VA Nursing Home Still a Possibility

Washington Regional Medical Center will have to wait at least another 18 months to find out whether construction of a state veterans’ nursing home will be possible for Northwest Arkansas.

This spring WRMC administrators planned to house a state and federally funded veterans’ nursing home on the top two floors of its existing location on the corner of North Street and College Avenue in Fayetteville. Next summer, most of the hospital’s departments will relocate to a new 345,000-SF complex on Northhills Boulevard, leaving a majority of the current facility vacant. Some administrative offices and the center’s 10,000-SF geriatric-psychiatry ward will remain at the current location.

As individual leases expire, various branches of Washington Regional Medical System will rehabitate part of the shell. Currently, the system uses 50,000-SF of office space in Fayetteville.

According to the State of Arkansas 83rd General Assembly Web site, www.arkleg.state.ar.us, House Bill 1893 became Act 1154 on March 28 and authorized using $2.28 million of general improvement funds to construct the veterans’ home.

The bill also appropriated $4.23 million of federal funds for the project.

However, because the appropriation wasn’t included in an act to actually allot funds, the authorization to spend the money will expire.

Proponents of the nursing home will have to go through the appropriation process again during the next legislative session, which is scheduled to meet on the first Monday of 2003.

WRMC Administrator Jack Mitchell said the hospital may use the space for a long-term psychiatric care unit, if the veterans’ home doesn’t become feasible.