Healthcare Projects in NWA

[mcheiss]

I think this is a good issue to discuss. We seem to be lacking certain Healthcare in NWA, like a burn unit and centralized hospital. I'll start by informing everyone about a new Healthcare option coming to NWA.

A childrens clinic will be built near Interstate 540 and Arkansas 264. The building, the Northwest Arkansas Children

[masons_dad1]

I think this is a good issue to discuss. We seem to be lacking certain Healthcare in NWA, like a burn unit and centralized hospital. I'll start by informing everyone about a new Healthcare option coming to NWA.

A childrens clinic will be built near Interstate 540 and Arkansas 264. The building, the Northwest Arkansas Children

[mcheiss]

A hospital specializing in children's care would be great. Along with a burn unit we also need a cancer treatment center. There's a laser treatment center in Springdale but it's an expensive treatment. The few cancer patients I know of have to go to Little Rock for treatment.

I agree about the Burn Unit.

I had a friend burned about 2 months ago pretty bad, and he had to go down to Little Rock quite a bit. A cancer Treatment center is another badly needed healthcare facility.

[Aporkalypse]

I agree about the Burn Unit.

I had a friend burned about 2 months ago pretty bad, and he had to go down to Little Rock quite a bit. A cancer Treatment center is another badly needed healthcare facility.

The only burn unit in the state is at Arkansas Childrens' Hospital. Honestly, one unit in a state this size is usually about right. There are bigger states with only one. I once worked there, you'd be surprised at the percentage that are from meth labs that exploded. There was a study done a few years back that basically showed NWA couldn't support a children's hospital with ones in Tulsa and LR nearby. I think this clinic will be a nice addition, though, providing a lot of specialized care that's currently lacking up there.

There's a solid oncology group in NWA. A dedicated cancer center unless it's at a major medical school is just a marketing gimic, a way of the hospital keeping more money and sharing less with physicians. It serves no real purpose as the same treatments are available in the hospital or clinic already.

NWAs' problem is that it lacks one large private hospital that kind of dominates the others and serves as a regional referral center and offers cutting edge treatments the way Baptist does in LR. Washington Regional is the closest to it but it's still smaller than it should be. Part of the problem is that really only the NWA MSA is served by the hospitals there because Tulsa and Springfield are so close, whereas LR, Ft Smith, Jonesboro, Texarkana really draw well outside their MSAs. Ft Smith draws from most of Eastern OK and LR pulls from the majority of the state's population. I think that's why health care there lags behind other development. Still, I do think NWA has been a desirable place for physicians to relocate and they are filling open positions there.

[masons_dad1]

The only burn unit in the state is at Arkansas Childrens' Hospital. Honestly, one unit in a state this size is usually about right. There are bigger states with only one.

You're right about the size of Arkansas. I don't know how many burn centers they have in Texas, but with just Houston's population being roughly the same as the entire state of Arkansas I can see your point. I think the problem is many of the wealthy people moving to NWA are used to having lots of urban amenities that are not to be found in NWA. So NWA is trying to accommodate them.

Still, I do think NWA has been a desirable place for physicians to relocate and they are filling open positions there.

NWA is desperately trying to bring RN's to NWA. Especially with a new hospital in Bentonville and a new 200+ bed hospital being built in Rogers.

[Aporkalypse]

In all fairness, there is no place in America that's not having trouble recruiting nurses. It's not at all just NWA. Relative affordability works in NWA's favor, though, as does UA having a nursing school.

[mcheiss]

In all fairness, there is no place in America that's not having trouble recruiting nurses. It's not at all just NWA. Relative affordability works in NWA's favor, though, as does UA having a nursing school.

The Northwest Arkansas Community College is another big nursing school up here as well.

[masons_dad1]

St. Mary's Hospital in Rogers just lost another Heart Surgeon.

Here's the Link!

[Aporkalypse]

St. Mary's Hospital in Rogers just lost another Heart Surgeon.

Here's the Link!

Considering the article said they dropped cardiac and vascular surgery after "internal and external peer review" I think it makes sense why, a surgeon can't work without being able to do surgery.

[mcheiss]

St. Mary's Hospital in Rogers just lost another Heart Surgeon.

Here's the Link!

Dang, that's the second one in less than a year. I'm wondering if this program is going to get back up to speed whenever the new hospital opens.

[KJW]

The competition from another health system, however, might help the health care industry in Northwest Arkansas not hurt it, said Ed Clifford, president and CEO of the Bentonville-Bella Vista Chamber of Commerce.

"We have four anchor industries right now: Tyson, J.B. Hunt, Wal-Mart and the University (of Arkansas). It seems to us the medical business is becoming our fifth anchor," Clifford said.

Clifford said Freeman (based in Joplin, MO) once drew a significant number of patients from southwest Kansas. With that area's decline in population, it's natural they would look south toward the population boom in Northwest Arkansas.

http://www.nwaonline.com/articles/2006/07/...6003freeman.txt

What?!?! No "Disney"?

[mcheiss]

This has already been mentioned in another thread.

I doubt this medical campus will be very large, probably nothing more than 100 bed hospital at max.

[KJW]

This has already been mentioned in another thread.

I doubt this medical campus will be very large, probably nothing more than 100 bed hospital at max.

mcheiss, indeed I remember that discussion.

What I thought was interesting was that the Bentonville/BV Chamber guy speculated that health care could be the "fifth anchor" for the region's economy after W-M, TF, JBH, TUOA.

IMO, five hospitals (counting Siloam's) plus this medical campus (and hospital if it happens) doesn't an "anchor" make, not on the order of the other guys. (Slyder, Springfield, MO's "medical mile" comes immediately to mind).

That being said, though, if enough specialists and clinics could open in this area (remember the UAMS expansion consideration announcement recently) that would indeed help fill a lot of these new houses around here (after all these new retail jobs that are going to be opening up with the Promenade, etc.)...

[Aporkalypse]

This has already been mentioned in another thread.

I doubt this medical campus will be very large, probably nothing more than 100 bed hospital at max.

I agree, McDonald Co's population wouldn't support much more. Plus, a small hospital with no subspecialists won't really entice a lot of people there not to drive to Bentonville, Joplin, or Springfield.

Now for the last poster who I think was seeing the medical community as a "5th pillar" for all of NWA, I would wager that in NWA as in most communities it's already there. I'm sure Wal-Mart employees more but all of the hospitals and clinics in the area but the medical community probably employees more than any other single employer. For example, UAMS employees as many employees in Arkansas as Wal-Mart does. Baptist Health in LR is 6th on the list of largest employers in Arkansas.

[KJW]

I agree, McDonald Co's population wouldn't support much more. Plus, a small hospital with no subspecialists won't really entice a lot of people there not to drive to Bentonville, Joplin, or Springfield.

Now for the last poster who I think was seeing the medical community as a "5th pillar" for all of NWA, I would wager that in NWA as in most communities it's already there. I'm sure Wal-Mart employees more but all of the hospitals and clinics in the area but the medical community probably employees more than any other single employer. For example, UAMS employees as many employees in Arkansas as Wal-Mart does. Baptist Health in LR is 6th on the list of largest employers in Arkansas.

Aporkalypse, if the medical community is the "fifth anchor" this has got to be one of the lightest anchors here on record...though heavier than it used to be...

[Aporkalypse]

Aporkalypse, if the medical community is the "fifth anchor" this has got to be one of the lightest anchors here on record...though heavier than it used to be...

How many people do you think all of the hospitals and clinics up there employee?

[mcheiss]

I'd say 6,000, and that's a wild guess.

[Aporkalypse]

I'd say 6,000, and that's a wild guess.

Washington Regional employees 2100 (UA has 3500). I think if you add up the Northwest Health system, Sisters of Mercy Health system and private clinics around town you'll easily come up with 6-8000. Maybe even 10,000. While this isn't on par with UAMS's 9000 employees, Baptist Health of LR's 6500, St Vincent's 3200 employees, or Children's 2700 employees it still makes up a chunk of the economy. Right now, both Sparks and St Edward's are much larger employers than the NWA hospitals. As I've stated, though, the lack of individual very large employers shouldn't distract you from noting the profession as a very large employer.

A clinic I'm looking at has 8 doctors and 125 employees. That's just one clinic in one narrow specialty. That kind of tells you the kind of numbers health care brings into the economy.

I still would've liked to see one very large centrally-located hospital serve as a tertiary care center up there the way Baptist and St Vincent's do in LR and St Edward's and Spark's do in Ft Smith. The problem is often that preexisting relationships with physicians and insurance companies make it hard for one hospital to do that in a sparse, more fractionated area like NWA.

[mcheiss]

I'd say over time, the Hospitals of NWA will become much larger, heck Washington Regional is expanding to over 300 Beds with a larger Hospital Emergency Room. Springdale's Northwest Medical Center has 222 Beds. Rogers Mercy Health is suppose to be 200 Beds with 375,000 sq. feet. There's also suppose to be a 9 Floor Medical Professions Building with hundreds of medical related jobs to serve the Mercy Health Hospital.

I see more and more specialists coming to NWA in the future when the population gets higher.

[Aporkalypse]

I'd say over time, the Hospitals of NWA will become much larger, heck Washington Regional is expanding to over 300 Beds with a larger Hospital Emergency Room. Springdale's Northwest Medical Center has 222 Beds. Rogers Mercy Health is suppose to be 200 Beds with 375,000 sq. feet. There's also suppose to be a 9 Floor Medical Professions Building with hundreds of medical related jobs to serve the Mercy Health Hospital.

I see more and more specialists coming to NWA in the future when the population gets higher.

Right now that puts Wash Regional on part with Baptist's NLR campus. Baptist-LR has 790 beds, St Vincent's 630, and UAMS 400 and the latter is expanding.

In Ft Smith Sparks is 476 beds and St Edward's 350.

In Jonesboro St Bernard's is 375. Jefferson Regional in Pine Bluff is 471. Hot Springs' two hospitals have 275 and 166 beds. Mountain Home's hospital has 260 beds. Searcy even has a 245 bed hospital.

Things would be easier if one hospital system dominated NWA and the other hospitals operated as satellites. The feuds between systems have made it very difficult. The reason I didn't really look at jobs there is because of this - I wouldn't want to have to cover that many hospitals and run myself ragged all the time despite that fact that I really like the area. The other issue is that NWA serves a limited area - it is surrounded by Ft Smith, Springfield and Tulsa which have big medical communities and really only draws from a few counties. Ft Smith's medical community has relied on a big swath of Eastern OK and Western AR and LR's medical community ultimately serves half of the state or more. The state is still largely rural and the big medical centers are what they are because of rural patients being transferred from smaller hospitals and clinics.

I think what you say is true, though, and I think if UAMS opens a satellite campus there this would be a huge help. That might ultimately lead to a Children's Hospital satellite as well.

[masons_dad1]

Right now that puts Wash Regional on part with Baptist's NLR campus. Baptist-LR has 790 beds, St Vincent's 630, and UAMS 400 and the latter is expanding.

In Ft Smith Sparks is 476 beds and St Edward's 350.

In Jonesboro St Bernard's is 375. Jefferson Regional in Pine Bluff is 471. Hot Springs' two hospitals have 275 and 166 beds. Mountain Home's hospital has 260 beds. Searcy even has a 245 bed hospital.

Apork... how many beds does Medical City Dallas have and is it the biggest hospital in Dallas?

[Aporkalypse]

Apork... how many beds does Medical City Dallas have and is it the biggest hospital in Dallas?

Medical City has 555 beds.

Parkland is the largest with 985 beds. Baylor, where I work, has 890. Presbyterian Dallas has 866 beds. Methodist has 478 beds. So, I guess Medical City is the 4th largest.

[mcheiss]

Since your the medical expert Apokalypse, what specialists and other Medical facilities do you see coming to the NWA metro within the next 10 years.

[masons_dad1]

Medical City has 555 beds.

Parkland is the largest with 985 beds. Baylor, where I work, has 890. Presbyterian Dallas has 866 beds. Methodist has 478 beds. So, I guess Medical City is the 4th largest.

I thought Medical City was the biggest because I remember how long it took to walk from one end to the other and crossing that enclosed bridge between the buildings so I can only imagine how big Parkland or Baylor is. I guess the biggest hospital campus we have in NWA would be Northwest Medical Center in Springdale with it's several tall buildings.

Northwest Medical Center in Springdale

[mcheiss]

I think Northwest Medical Center will be expanding soon, with the exponential growth of Springdale.