NWMC-Springdale Prepping For $8 Million Expansion

With long-sought-after land now in hand, Northwest Medical Center in Springdale is moving forward with an $8 million expansion.

Northwest Health System CEO Dan McKay said he expects the project to begin this fall, with a completion time of 12 to 18 months.

Earlier this year NHS acquired approximately three acres that will help shift and extend the main entrance of the hospital out to Thompson Street, bounded on either side by Quandt and Maple streets.

“It will create more efficiency and more visibility,” McKay said, adding the new entrance facing Thompson “is really going to pop.”

Thomas, Miller & Partners PLLC of Brentwood, Tenn, is the architect for the expansion.

McKay said the project focus will be on expansion of the emergency room. The ER team is currently operating in a facility built to handle 25,000 visits per year. NWMC-Springdale sees 35,000 patients in the ER each year.

The project will add approximately 20,000 SF of hospital space for the new ER and an expansion of current services, bringing the total SF of the hospital to just less than 557,000. Ten additional ER beds will be added for a total of 26.

Infrastructure prep work for the expansion has been ongoing for the last year at NWMC-Springdale, an affiliate of Community Health Systems of Franklin, Tenn. Part of that included the addition of 16 telemetry beds – increasing the total to 60 – as part of a technology upgrade for the cath lab and post-cardiac cath unit.

NHS has 2,000 employees at its hospitals in Bentonville, Springdale and the Willow Creek Women’s Hospital in Johnson. McKay said NWMC-Springdale expects to add 20 medical staff members because of the expansion, bringing the total number of employees to approximately 900.

McKay said hospital services will continue uninterrupted during construction.