Alice Walton says it’s time to ‘dream together’ to improve health care

Alice Walton asked on Friday a Bentonville audience to welcome her back to Build Bentonville in 15 years to discuss results of the health care transformation taking place now in the city and region.

Walton said 15 years ago she spoke to business leaders about the importance of art and wellness prior to the opening of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, which Walton funded. Since its opening in 2011, Walton said 13 million people have visited the world-class art museum.

“One thing was missing in this region and that was access to transformational health care, and we are going to fix that,” Walton said at the Build Bentonville event held Friday (March 7) and sponsored by the Greater Bentonville Area Chamber of Commerce.

Walton said a lot will happen in the next few years to help put the region at the forefront of transformational health care. She said the region lost an estimated $695 million in health care services when residents visited cities outside Northwest Arkansas for specialty care. She said the first specialty being tackled is cardiac care because it’s the leading cause of death in the state and nation. Arkansas ranks 42nd among the states in terms of cardiologists per capita, Walton said.

She said the partnership with the Alice Walton Foundation, Cleveland Clinic, and Mercy will ensure that more Arkansans have better access to cardiac care when the $350 million specialty clinic opens in north Bentonville by late 2028. She said other specialities will follow.

“Let’s dream together,” Walton said.

Dr. Sharmila Makhija, founding dean of the Alice L. Walton School of Medicine (AWSOM), said Walton’s vision is timely given the broken state of health care. The curriculum at AWSOM will incorporate whole health concepts as well as traditional studies, setting it apart from other schools, she said.

The first 30 students have been offered and accepted their spots in the class of 48 that will begin July 14. She said the staff is conducting final interviews, and the application deadline is two days away. Makhija said there were 2,000 applicants for the first class of 48, which she said is a record among medical schools in the nation over a three-month period. Walton is paying tuition for the first five AWSOM student cohorts.

The medical school campus encompasses 154,000 square feet, a 2-acre green roof, connected trail system, and healing gardens. The first floor and second floor of the medical school will be open to the public. There will be art exhibits inside the public spaces of AWSOM that explore wellness and healing themes.

Scott Ecceleson, president of campus planning and facility management at Art & Wellness Enterprises, said given the affordable housing shortage in Northwest Arkansas, Walton decided to build campus housing near the medical school. He said 100 units will be set aside for students, and there will be 200 units of multifamily housing for the public. The units will range from studios to two bedrooms, and a groundbreaking is slated for next week. He pegs the targeted completion by July 2027.

Heartland Whole Health Institute is also opening in May on the Crystal Bridges campus. The 85,000-square-foot building will be open to the public on the ground floor with art displays and a cafe. Working with AWSOM and other health care providers in the region and beyond, the think tank bills itself as the engine behind moving toward a whole-health model, exploring predictive analytics, and improving virtual care for primary and specialties to rural areas in the 20-state Heartland Region.

AWSOM and Heartland Whole Health each sit on the 134-acre Crystal Bridges campus. The museum is also in the midst of a major expansion that will add a massive parking garage, 114,000 square feet of additional exhibit space, a digital media lab, more opportunities for food and beverage, and studio space for artists. The new addition will open in 2026.

Crystal Bridges Executive Director Rod Bigelow said everything about the museum will be new in 2026. He said new art is being procured and the entire collection will be rearranged. Bigelow said adding AWSOM and Heartland Whole Health, which are each connected through the trail system on the campus, will provide visitors a unique experience with public spaces along the trail.