Good McNews for Mercy

We hear Mercy Hospital Northwest Arkansas in Rogers will be making a significant addition to its services.

The hospital announced to staff members recently that it is going to house a Ronald McDonald Family Room. A formal announcement about the project will be coming soon.

Mercy got final approval last week from Ronald McDonald House Charities. The organization was founded almost four decades ago, and offers support to families through Ronald McDonald Houses, Ronald McDonald Family Rooms and Ronald McDonald Care Mobiles.

The Rogers addition will be just the state’s second RMFR, which provides a variety of services to families of hospitalized children.

The other was opened in December 2010 inside Mercy Hospital Fort Smith, and it’s a 2,500-SF space with living room, kitchen, reading room, television and bathrooms with showers. Four separate sleeping rooms are available.

The Rogers setup will be similar, we’re told. The room will be open 365 days a year, staffed with a combination of full-time, part-time and volunteer workers.

The RMFR is scheduled to open next summer, after an extensive remodeling project. It will be on the third floor — two floors below the pediatric unit and NICU — in space currently used for physicians’ living areas.