CEO Marcy Doderer: Arkansas Children’s Hospital Growth Vision More Than NW Arkansas

A month ago when Arkansas Children’s Hospital announced a major $184 million expansion into Northwest Arkansas, leaders of the state’s only pediatric hospital dropped a hint that their future growth was bigger than one corner of the state.

ACH President and CEO Marcy Doderer told the audience that the Springdale campus is part of the hospital’s plan to “blanket the state with services that will improve access to pediatric care and improve the health of children throughout our state.”

Appearing on this week’s edition of Talk Business & Politics, Doderer expounded on that vision.

“We don’t have a perfect crystal ball for where health care is going, but we do believe now is really the right time for Arkansas Children’s Hospital to ensure we remain ‘Arkansas’s’ children’s hospital,” she said. “Our strategic plan calls for a statewide network of care, the ability to blanket the state with services to get care closer to kids – where they live, where they play, where they go to school.”

Serving roughly 700,000 kids in 75 counties across the state, Doderer said the hospital’s finances and timing are right to push for an expansion of services, but that doesn’t mean you’ll see buildings sprouting up on every corner.

“The answer is not the same for every community in our state. We need unique and specific solutions as we go through rural Arkansas versus urban Arkansas,” Doderer said.

The hospital has engaged an outside consultant to look at rural expansion, which will include community-based health care, school-based health care, and even mobile health care. Doderer said ACH is exploring a van clinic for immunizations, preventive care, primary care, and other social services. This could include partnerships with local hospitals, health clinics, or smaller doctors’ practices.

PRIVATE OPTION, HEALTH CARE REFORM
Doderer serves on Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s Advisory Council on Medicaid Reform. She’s been closely following developments related to the private option and other program reforms.

“When I read the reports, when I read the numbers from various sources, I would say the private option has worked.” she said, adding that thousands of children have had improved access to health services. “We know when parents get health insurance, kids get health care.”

Doderer says she’s open to “different versions” of health reform and has offered her suggestions on what she’s seen in other states before she returned to Arkansas nearly two years ago.

As for a flexible 1115 waiver or a wide-open global waiver that some lawmakers are discussing as a possible replacement to the private option and other government-connected health programs, Doderer said she’d like to see more structure in a state plan.

“For me, it’s more helpful in the realm of children to have a little more structure and that’s because kids are a small piece of the pie and can get lost in the shuffle if there are looser definitions of what that program may look like,” she said.

“I’m willing to look at other options… what I’ve said to the governor himself is please give us enough runway time to change our infrastructure for it.”

Watch her full Talk Business & Politics interview in the video below.