Bold Step Forward

Everything doesn’t always go according to plan, especially when Northwest Arkansas growth comes into play.

If it did, administrators and supporters of Mercy Northwest Arkansas might not have gathered on a beautiful April afternoon to announce a $247 million investment in the local health care industry.

The 350,000-SF hospital that opened in 2008 along Interstate 49 in Rogers wasn’t supposed to be at capacity so soon. Plans were to build out the seventh floor in two or three years, said Clark Ellison, vice president of philanthropy for Mercy.

Yet, a project is underway to complete the seventh floor this summer and add an additional 24 beds to the hospital, he said.

“We’ve outgrown it sooner than expected,” Sister Anita DeSalvo said. “How can we provide more and more access for a community that continues to grow today?”

Growth changed plans, and Mercy’s announcement to build a 190,000-SF tower west of the existing hospital and seven clinics in Benton and Washington counties is a plan for growth.

The region’s population has increased by an average of 24 people a day since the 2010 Census, according to the Northwest Arkansas Council, and the Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) crossed the 500,000 population threshold a couple of years ago.

“This plan was built with thoughtful input,” said Wayne Callahan, chairman of Mercy Northwest Arkansas’ board of directors. “This was a bold step forward.”

 

New Patient Tower

The seven-story tower expansion will add 100 beds, bringing the number of beds to 300. The goal is a total of 360 beds.

Construction will start as soon as December. The tower is scheduled to open in July 2019, said Eric Pianalto, president of Mercy Hospital.

The project will allow for the expansion of existing services including the heart and vascular center and women’s and children’s services. A Neonatal Intensive Care Unit will be built as part of the tower expansion.

The expansion will also provide services that the hospital doesn’t offer currently, Pianalto said.

Over the next five years, 1,000 health care jobs will be created.

A residency program will be established to train eight doctors in its first year and 24 in three years. The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences community internal medicine residency program will be a partnership with the Veterans Health Care System of the Ozarks in Fayetteville. 

“We’re thrilled to be able to train health care providers in Northwest Arkansas,” said Dr. Steve Goss, president of Mercy Clinic.

Work has already started to recruit health care workers, Pianalto said, referring to the project to build out the seventh floor of the hospital.

Along with this project, the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit will be renovated to keep up with a spike in the number of babies who need care.

Pianalto said Mercy partners closely with Arkansas Children’s Hospital, and the renovation of the unit is not a response to the Little Rock-based hospital’s plan for a 225,000-SF facility in Springdale.

The two hospitals have shared patients in the past, and the new unit will not be a duplication of service, he said.

As the area grows, “our health care systems must grow and expand as well,” Gov. Asa Hutchinson said.

Other improvements at the existing hospital include a hybrid cardiac catheterization lab that uses technology for advanced heart procedures not being performed in the region.

Also underway north of the existing hospital is a 500-space parking lot to add to the existing 1,700 spaces. Construction work will displace 160 spaces, said Jennifer Cook, senior media relations specialist for Mercy.

After construction is completed, about 20 spaces will be taken over because of the new tower, Pianalto said.

St. Louis-based McCarthy will be the general contractor, working along with Springfield, Missouri-based Bates Architects (which also has a Rogers office) and Crafton Tull (civil engineer) of Rogers.

 

Playing Catch Up

The $247 million investment is expected to accommodate growth for the next 10 to 15 years, Ellison said.

“It’s an investment in the health care to our community,” he said. “We’re playing catch up.”

Over the past two years, the investment plan was developed with input from physicians, co-workers and the community, Pianalto said. The planning process concluded with the announcement.

“This is a monumental day for Mercy,” Pianalto said.

Callahan said he’s confident the plan will be worth “all our collective efforts.”

The project will make Northwest Arkansas a health care destination, Rogers Mayor Greg Hines said.

“The city has no better partner than that of Mercy and her team,” Hines said.

Mercy will invest over $200 million into the project and launch a capital campaign seeking community contributions for the remainder, Pianalto said. The campaign will start in the next 90 days and run over the next three to five years.

 

Seven Clinics, Seven Years

Work on four of the clinics is expected to start soon.

All the clinics will be new construction and will take between nine to 12 months to build, he said. They will be built over the next five to seven years.

Clinics, such as a primary care clinic in Pea Ridge, will be between 4,000 and 6,000 SF, Goss said.

A 12,000- to 14,000-SF clinic is planned for the rapidly growing southwest Bentonville area, he said. Clinics are also planned for north Bentonville and Bella Vista.

In the long-term, a 25,000-SF medical campus is planned to be built along I-49 in northern Washington County, he said. Also, a clinic might be built in east Springdale.

A 30-acre site is under contract in northern Washington County, Goss said. Land for the Pea Ridge clinic is already purchased, and it is expected to be built first.

“So many of us have been anticipating this day,” said Martine Pollard, executive director of communications and community integration for Mercy. “This plan will certainly help us chart our course.”

Mercy Northwest Arkansas has over 2,000 employees in its clinics, medical centers and hospital.

In 1950, the community-run Rogers Memorial Hospital opened.

A year later, the Dominican Sisters took over hospital operations and changed the name to St. Mary’s Hospital. In 1995, St. Mary’s transferred to Sisters of Mercy Health System. The existing $140 million hospital opened in January 2008.

“What we are about today could not be done without everyone here,” DeSalvo said.

Mercy is the seventh largest Catholic health care system in the United States and includes 45 hospitals, 700 clinics, 40,000 health care workers and 2,000 physicians in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma.