Mercy Northwest Arkansas Announces $247 Million Expansion

Rogers-based health system Mercy Northwest Arkansas announced Wednesday a $247 million investment plan that’s expected to create 1,000 health care jobs and several capital construction projects in the area over the next five years.

Mercy Northwest Arkansas president Eric Pianalto discussed details of the expansion at an outdoor event on the north side of the Mercy Hospital campus just off Interstate 49 in Rogers.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson and other Northwest Arkansas leaders were among the hospital supporters in attendance.

 “Our hospital and clinics have been serving the community at a very high capacity,” Pianalto said in a news release. “To ensure we carry out our mission and continue to meet the needs of Northwest Arkansas, we developed this $247 million community presence plan that will allow us to serve our patients into the future by providing additional access to quality care and advancing the region as a health care destination.”

 Among expansion plans in the early stages are:

* A seven-story, 190,000-SF patient tower that will bump Mercy Hospital from 200 beds to 300 beds initially. Construction, which could begin as early as December, will accommodate future inpatient growth, with the goal of a total of 360 beds.

St. Louis-based McCarthy has been named as the general contractor, along with Bates Architects of Springfield, Missouri, and Crafton Tull (civil engineer) of Rogers.

The site for the new tower is west of the existing seven-story hospital, a $140 million, 350,000-SF complex that opened in January 2008.

* Addition of multiple primary care and specialty clinics in Benton County and north Washington County. Four clinics are planned in the “near future” for Bentonville (north and southwest), Pea Ridge and the west side of Bella Vista. Construction will begin soon on the two clinics in Bentonville.

Three others clinics are planned “long term.”

* Creation and recruitment of new health care jobs, including physicians, advanced practitioners, nurses and other health care co-workers.

* Improvements to the hospital’s existing areas of specialty care, including the heart and vascular center and women’s and children’s services.

* Establishment of a University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences community internal medicine residency program in partnership with the Veterans Health Care System of the Ozarks in Fayetteville. The program will provide training to eight doctors the first year, growing to 24 doctors in three years.

 Already underway, according to the release, are several additions: (1) a hybrid cardiac catheterization lab that provides technology for advanced heart procedures not currently being performed in the region; (2) an interim renovation of the Level IIIA Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) to better serve our smallest patients; (3) renovation of the seventh floor to provide the addition of 24 new inpatient beds; (4) a 500-space parking lot expansion to the north of the current hospital.

Expansion plans were developed by studying population trends, community health outcomes and needs and access to care, according to the release.

“Mercy has a deep history in this community and we are committed to meeting the needs of its people,” said Wayne Callahan, chairman of the Mercy Northwest Arkansas board of directors. “To fulfill the mission entrusted to us by the Sisters of Mercy, we want to continue to increase access and improve facilities so that we may serve the people of Northwest Arkansas for generations to come.”