New Siloam Springs Regional Hospital ready for business

All systems are go for the Siloam Springs Regional Hospital move to begin at 6 a.m. on Saturday (April 28).

A sparkling new $40 million medical facility has been polished and shined, then sanitized and sealed until the first patient is moved.

Cathy Davis, spokeswoman for the hospital, said between 15 and 20 patients will be moved via ambulance first thing Saturday.

“We anticipate it will take about 20 minutes or so to transport each patient from the facility on Jefferson Street to the new hospital on Progress Avenue. It’s something we have drilled for over and over in the past few weeks,” Davis said.”We are working with our emergency partners to safety complete the move by noon.”

She said the hospital group, which is owned by Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems Inc., has a specialist who has been coordinating the move for several months with a local team.

The new hospital features 42 beds, expanded emergency and obstetric departments and 700 square-foot surgical suites. The total space is 92,000 square feet, nearly twice the 53,000 square feet in the older facility.

The hospital has been a 60-year staple in the Siloam Springs area and surrounding community of about 50,000 residents, according to Wayne Mays, director for the Siloam Springs Chamber of Commerce.

Davis said last year the hospital delivered 585 babies and a record 1,800 patients visited the emergency room in March alone. The average census for the hospital is 20 patients who typically stay four days.

The new hospital is the result of cooperation between Community Health Systems and the city of Siloam Springs. The city gave the hospital a 50-year lease on the land for $1 per year, which is renewable for two 15-year periods.

Davis said a medical office building will soon be under construction next door following an official ground-breaking later next month.

Hospital officials did not have an estimate as to how many hours went into planning the actual move but did say a team met weekly for the better part of six months carefully planning every possible detail.