Healthcare Projects in NWA

[slyder1]

It's enevitable that NWA will get larger hospitals, that is unless more different hospitals keep moving to the area. Springfield's St. Johns Hospital has over 1,000 beds and they are adding a new 9 story In Patient Tower next to the existing 9 story one, god knows how many more beds that will add. Cox South has around 800 and is also moving much of the Cox North beds to South, which will add 400 more beds to South. There's the a couple of other with 200 beds or so. I remeber the news-leader running an article on Sprinfield's $1 Billion Medical Expansion. This really isn't a surprise seeing how Springfield's largest employer is the Hospitals totaling under 30,000 employee's. The Hospital campuses here are getting so big that they are propably bigger than the MSU campus, no exageration! Anyways NWA will most likely expand the existing hospitals and the other new ones because it sounds like almost every city now has it's own hospital. Of course you alway's just have to wait and see.

[mcheiss]

Most NWA hospitals are actually new, Bates Medical Center was completed in 2003, Washington Regional in the past 5 years, and Rogers Mercy Health Center will be done by 2008. I'm not sure how big we can get considering Tulsa, Springfield, and Ft. Smith already have larger hospitals that cover a large area.

[slyder1]

Most NWA hospitals are actually new, Bates Medical Center was completed in 2003, Washington Regional in the past 5 years, and Rogers Mercy Health Center will be done by 2008. I'm not sure how big we can get considering Tulsa, Springfield, and Ft. Smith already have larger hospitals that cover a large area.

I guess your right, but once the pop. becomes so big they will need more services. I even remember hearing about a person from Harrison getting airlifted to Cox South because NWA didn't have the services or at least it wasn't enought to ensure the person would live. Do you know if there is much of a trauma ward at any of the NWA hospitals, I would emagine that NWA really needs this and a burn unit.

[mcheiss]

A Burn Unit is drastically needed. One of my friends was severly burned last year and had to fly down to Little Rock Childrens Hospital for it.

I don't think we have a Trauma Unit, not sure though.

[slyder1]

A Burn Unit is drastically needed. One of my friends was severly burned last year and had to fly down to Little Rock Childrens Hospital for it.

I don't think we have a Trauma Unit, not sure though.

NWA will definately need a trauma unit in the years to come, really they need one now. That is surprising that they didn't fly your friend to a tulsa hospital, BTW sorry to hear that.

This is a good topic I think I will start one in the Springfield Forum today. I don't know why I didn't think of this earlier. With that aside NWA will get some sort of these services because if they don't you will keep hearing about alot of unessesary deaths and people will get very angry.

[KJW]

NWA will definately need a trauma unit in the years to come, really they need one now. That is surprising that they didn't fly your friend to a tulsa hospital, BTW sorry to hear that.

This is a good topic I think I will start one in the Springfield Forum today. I don't know why I didn't think of this earlier. With that aside NWA will get some sort of these services because if they don't you will keep hearing about alot of unessesary deaths and people will get very angry.

Aporkalypse, I hope, no, the way NWA's growing I KNOW things are different than they were even two years ago. But two years ago (two year after we moved from the Atlanta area) our 13 year old daughter was diagnosed with major depression and at the time there were something like 5 or less child psychiatrists in the area. The Bentonville paper did a story on the changing needs of mental health care for kids in this area.

There has been a dearth of specialized physicians in the area (with the rapid growth how could there NOT be?) in the last couple of years but I know that will change...if medical employment becomes what Slyder says Springfield's is medicine will indeed become the "fifth anchor".

Make no mistake about it...with all these new (mostly urban transplant) people and all this money in the area people are going to be less and less willing to travel to Little Rock, Tulsa and Springfield for specialized medical services...

[mcheiss]

I do know that Rogers Mercy Health Hospital has decided to furbish the 6th Floor instead of leaving it as an empty shell, simply because of the growing need of medical services.

It also looks like Willow Creek Women's Hospital in Johnson will be expanding as well, but is waiting on a grant.

Hey KJW, you don't mind if I change the title of this to Healthcare in NWA, description as: The 5th Anchor of NWA?

[Aporkalypse]

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

Medical City is a little misleading because the hospital has so many office buildings connected to it. Also, unlike Baylor which has a 17 story tower, the buildings are fairly squat meaning more walking between them. As far as walking between buildings goes, UAMS is much worse than any of these campuses save Parkland's.

Right now Northwest has 220 beds, Washington Regional 300 and I think the new Mercy in Rogers is 200. From what I hear the Wash Regional people are kicking themselves for not building it so that it could undergo easy expansion as it was almost obsolete as soon as it was built - they would like to add additional beds right now. For some reason, they didn't design it for expandability. The similar-sized Baptist NLR campus was designed to add extra floors for future expansion, so this is something that is commonly done.

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St John's has more like 860 beds, slyder. It's not bigger than Parkland. Springfield's medical community is exemplifies what I said earlier. It is no larger than NWA but it serves a much greater rural area and has well-established hospital systems that have been in place for decades. In LR Baptist and St Vincent's have been around for more than a century though their locations have changed.

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The Women's Hospital in NWA is a rare thing, actually. Kind of a neat concept I haven't seen.

The Burn Unit issue is a big issue, I know. Tulsa and Springfield both have burn units but most Arkansans prefer to transfer to Children's because of quality of care. They have a very experienced group of surgeons running that unit and one of the largest units in the country.

UAMS has the only level I trauma center in the state (it's hard to have one unless it's an academic center), Baptist the only level II but supposedly Wash Regional (now level III) was ramping up to be another level II as was Sparks. I thought it was set Wash Regional would do this when the new campus opened but I am kind of out of touch with that.

NWA is a hot market for incoming physicians because of growth but what you're seeing is a slow process of transition from a primary care-driven marketplace to a more specialized one. You can find specialized docs there already in every major specialty but what you're slowly seeing is a transition from family practice to internists and pediatricians, general surgeons to surgical oncologists, trauma surgeons, etc, etc that will take decades as older physicians retire and are replaced. Most of the docs now practicing moved there when these towns were considerably smaller communities and there is some lag time. Believe it or not, a similar thing is happening in populous (and popular) Palm Beach County, FL which has 1.3 million residents.

[mcheiss]

The Women's Hospital in NWA is a rare thing, actually. Kind of a neat concept I haven't seen.

The Burn Unit issue is a big issue, I know. Tulsa and Springfield both have burn units but most Arkansans prefer to transfer to Children's because of quality of care. They have a very experienced group of surgeons running that unit and one of the largest units in the country.

UAMS has the only level I trauma center in the state (it's hard to have one unless it's an academic center), Baptist the only level II but supposedly Wash Regional (now level III) was ramping up to be another level II as was Sparks. I thought it was set Wash Regional would do this when the new campus opened but I am kind of out of touch with that.

NWA is a hot market for incoming physicians because of growth but what you're seeing is a slow process of transition from a primary care-driven marketplace to a more specialized one. You can find specialized docs there already in every major specialty but what you're slowly seeing is a transition from family practice to internists and pediatricians, general surgeons to surgical oncologists, trauma surgeons, etc, etc that will take decades as older physicians retire and are replaced. Most of the docs now practicing moved there when these towns were considerably smaller communities and there is some lag time. Believe it or not, a similar thing is happening in populous (and popular) Palm Beach County, FL which has 1.3 million residents.

[Aporkalypse]

The Women's Hospital in NWA is a rare thing, actually. Kind of a neat concept I haven't seen.

The Burn Unit issue is a big issue, I know. Tulsa and Springfield both have burn units but most Arkansans prefer to transfer to Children's because of quality of care. They have a very experienced group of surgeons running that unit and one of the largest units in the country.

UAMS has the only level I trauma center in the state (it's hard to have one unless it's an academic center), Baptist the only level II but supposedly Wash Regional (now level III) was ramping up to be another level II as was Sparks. I thought it was set Wash Regional would do this when the new campus opened but I am kind of out of touch with that.

NWA is a hot market for incoming physicians because of growth but what you're seeing is a slow process of transition from a primary care-driven marketplace to a more specialized one. You can find specialized docs there already in every major specialty but what you're slowly seeing is a transition from family practice to internists and pediatricians, general surgeons to surgical oncologists, trauma surgeons, etc, etc that will take decades as older physicians retire and are replaced. Most of the docs now practicing moved there when these towns were considerably smaller communities and there is some lag time. Believe it or not, a similar thing is happening in populous (and popular) Palm Beach County, FL which has 1.3 million residents.

I'm almost positive that the new Mercy Hospital in Rogers is suppose to have a level 3 Trauma Center.

I think with Washington Regional's expansion, they are expanding the Trauma Center to a level 2.

I think a Burn Unit is needed, hopefully Children's Hospital will build a locaton in NWA. I recently toured the Children's Hospital with my friend, I got to say, what a facility. I'd really like to see something like that in NWA. I thought NWA was suppose to be getting somekind of Childrens Facility in Lowell, but I'm not sure exactly what it is.

There was analysis a few years ago that said NWA didn't really need a children's hospital but I have to question that. I think it would be highly feasible to build a satellite hospital/clinic in NWA in conjunction with a UAMS satellite if that ends up being built there. I think that would get NWA access to the pediatric specialists that are absent in NWA right now and realistically in places like Springfield, Ft Smith, etc as well. I heard a few years ago Tulsa closed their Children's hospital but I don't know about that. If this occurred it would also allow a small pediatrics residency program to start in NWA.

ACH has 280 beds and this makes it the 6th largest Children's Hospital in the country, BTW. It is really a top-notch facility.

[mcheiss]

So you think any plans for a Childrens Hospital of around 200 Beds is somewhere in the future?

[Aporkalypse]

So you think any plans for a Childrens Hospital of around 200 Beds is somewhere in the future?

If one were built I would be thinking more like 45-60 beds. 200 would actually make it very large for a Children's Hospital. Generally the clinics would be much busier but few children are actually admitted to the hospital. The Children's Medical Center in Plano which will serve Collin Co's 650k residents (projected to be a million in 10 years) is 72 beds. I would see something similar but slightly smaller in NWA.

Children's Legacy

More likely now that I think about it, though, is that this would incorporated into a UAMS satellite hospital/clinic as a wing. Of course, it is feasible this could be in Ft Smith instead of Fayetteville.

[mcheiss]

It turns out that the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences broke ground on a new pediatric center at Lowell, which will provide cardiac, rehabilitation and other medical services for young patients in northwest Arkansas.

The 34-thousand-square-foot Northwest Arkansas Center for Children is on a site near Interstate 540. The clinic is expected to be complete in March 2007. U-A-M-S pediatric doctors saw 682 patients in northwest Arkansas in fiscal year 2005.

Currently, UAMS pediatric subspecialists in cardiology, asthma/pulmonary care and physical medicine/rehabilitation offer services in Northwest Arkansas. A neurology program is expected to be added this year in Fayetteville. Pediatric subspecialists in additional areas will be added after the new facility opens.

Does this mean that NWA has a better chance at getting a UAMS satellite campus than Ft. Smith?

[CellarDoor135]

It turns out that the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences broke ground on a new pediatric center at Lowell, which will provide cardiac, rehabilitation and other medical services for young patients in northwest Arkansas.

The 34-thousand-square-foot Northwest Arkansas Center for Children is on a site near Interstate 540. The clinic is expected to be complete in March 2007. U-A-M-S pediatric doctors saw 682 patients in northwest Arkansas in fiscal year 2005.

Currently, UAMS pediatric subspecialists in cardiology, asthma/pulmonary care and physical medicine/rehabilitation offer services in Northwest Arkansas. A neurology program is expected to be added this year in Fayetteville. Pediatric subspecialists in additional areas will be added after the new facility opens.

Does this mean that NWA has a better chance at getting a UAMS satellite campus than Ft. Smith?

Was there ever a question as to Fort Smith even being considered? I thought the main consideration was where in NWA.

[mcheiss]

Was there ever a question as to Fort Smith even being considered? I thought the main consideration was where in NWA.

Well it's just that Sparks is a lot bigger than any other hospital in NWA, and I figured with Ft. Smith's economy going down the tubes, that UAMS would try to do something to help bring jobs to the area.

[slyder1]

Medical City is a little misleading because the hospital has so many office buildings connected to it. Also, unlike Baylor which has a 17 story tower, the buildings are fairly squat meaning more walking between them. As far as walking between buildings goes, UAMS is much worse than any of these campuses save Parkland's.

Right now Northwest has 220 beds, Washington Regional 300 and I think the new Mercy in Rogers is 200. From what I hear the Wash Regional people are kicking themselves for not building it so that it could undergo easy expansion as it was almost obsolete as soon as it was built - they would like to add additional beds right now. For some reason, they didn't design it for expandability. The similar-sized Baptist NLR campus was designed to add extra floors for future expansion, so this is something that is commonly done.

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St John's has more like 860 beds, slyder. It's not bigger than Parkland. Springfield's medical community is exemplifies what I said earlier. It is no larger than NWA but it serves a much greater rural area and has well-established hospital systems that have been in place for decades. In LR Baptist and St Vincent's have been around for more than a century though their locations have changed.

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The Women's Hospital in NWA is a rare thing, actually. Kind of a neat concept I haven't seen.

The Burn Unit issue is a big issue, I know. Tulsa and Springfield both have burn units but most Arkansans prefer to transfer to Children's because of quality of care. They have a very experienced group of surgeons running that unit and one of the largest units in the country.

UAMS has the only level I trauma center in the state (it's hard to have one unless it's an academic center), Baptist the only level II but supposedly Wash Regional (now level III) was ramping up to be another level II as was Sparks. I thought it was set Wash Regional would do this when the new campus opened but I am kind of out of touch with that.

NWA is a hot market for incoming physicians because of growth but what you're seeing is a slow process of transition from a primary care-driven marketplace to a more specialized one. You can find specialized docs there already in every major specialty but what you're slowly seeing is a transition from family practice to internists and pediatricians, general surgeons to surgical oncologists, trauma surgeons, etc, etc that will take decades as older physicians retire and are replaced. Most of the docs now practicing moved there when these towns were considerably smaller communities and there is some lag time. Believe it or not, a similar thing is happening in populous (and popular) Palm Beach County, FL which has 1.3 million residents.

Springfield actually has a much bigger Medical Presence than NWA. Cox Heath System (formerely known as Burge Heath Care) has been around for over a century and St. John's just under a century. St. John's actually had over 1,000 bed's a couple years ago but removed some beds due to construction of the new inpatient tower. My family has a combined 170 years in the medical field, and my Grandmother was the head nurse for Cox South for 40 years and was one of the leading forces that brought Springfield's quality Health Care into the national spotlight. Now when I say "Quality," I mean the during that time Cox and more notibly St. John's were known for there patient satifaction as well as services, although that has changed for Cox. St. John's has a Nationaly ranked top 10 clinic as well as being a top 100 hospital along with Cox. Cox's President and CEO is actually under the gun right now and is going threw a Grand Jury Trial for possible embessling from the Hospital. My mother is the Director of Central Services at Cox North and has been at the Hospital for over 30 years. She has been harassed by her boss and is in the process of suing becasue she is sick and tired of people being too afraid to stand up and say something, so she is willing to take the stand. If there is any propblem with the Springfield Medical Community it would be all of Cox's fault due to very, very poor leadership. They are in the process of turning Cox North into a new campus but without an ER and no admittance. This is the most insane idea seeing how many more 911 calls are made on the north side, the public has already had a tremendous outcry but the Hospital officials have no simpathy. This will in-turn lead to longer ambulence rides and uncalled for deaths. Although there is some light at the end of the tunnel. Springfield's Doctor's Hospital is located off of I-44 and National (which was just widened) and has picked up many of the services that North will no longer provide. They are also planing a six story patient tower and a larger ER trauma center with both being completed by 2010. Needless to say Springfield's Heathcare not only has a huge pressence in SW and SE Missouri but also all of the Ozarks and Northern Arkansas as well.

[mcheiss]

Hey Apork., all of the news articles I keep reading about the Mercy Hospital in Rogers keep saying it will be a Level 1 Trauma Center.

Is that true?

[Aporkalypse]

Springfield actually has a much bigger Medical Presence than NWA. Cox Heath System (formerely known as Burge Heath Care) has been around for over a century and St. John's just under a century.

That was the point of my post. Other than having a VA hospital in Fayetteville, Springfield is years ahead in terms of the medical community for the reasons I said - age and basin of influence. A similar gap would exist between Springfield and Little Rock where you have a large medical school, Children's Hospital, Heart Hospital, etc for the same reason - larger area of influence.

Mcheiss, I very much doubt it - probably level II. To be level I you have to have a neurosurgeon in-house at all times which is hard for all but academic centers like UAMS to pull off. However, level II is very good for a community that size - a few years ago I know there was only one level II (Baptist) in the state. The difference between I and II is really a formality as all trauma in NWA would go to the closest major trauma center. NWA certainly needs more trauma surgeons, though. I have no doubt of that.

[mcheiss]

It's just that all my old news articles keep saying that it will be a Level 1 Trauma Center.

May'be I should e-mail Mercy, give me a moment.

[Aporkalypse]

Was there ever a question as to Fort Smith even being considered? I thought the main consideration was where in NWA.

There are a couple of reasons Ft Smith could be favored. One is that much larger existing medical community, believe it or not, in Ft Smith. Sparks and St Edwards are considerably larger than the NWA hospitals. Sparks and Wash Regional would be the main rivals for this. Another is that by tucking a second campus in the corner of the state it would actually serve a more limited population. Yet another is that the UA already has most allied health and nursing programs an extra UAMS campus would offer whereas many of these would be new in NWA. It would also shorten the drive for students and faculty traveling to the satellite campus. There are many reasons to locate it in Ft Smith but as a business venture, I would think Fayetteville and an alliance with Wash Regional would make far more sense.

[Aporkalypse]

It's just that all my old news articles keep saying that it will be a Level 1 Trauma Center.

May'be I should e-mail Mercy, give me a moment.

They may claim they will do it but if they do, they are incorrect or just don't know the requirements that entails. I have no doubt some hospital administrator said it or that some journalist misinterpreted it and that ended up coming out in print.

[KJW]

They may claim they will do it but if they do, they are incorrect or just don't know the requirements that entails. I have no doubt some hospital administrator said it or that some journalist misinterpreted it and that ended up coming out in print.

Again, (and this is just psychology and speculation, but) all these folks that are moving here are from places like Atlanta and Dallas and L.A. and Nashville where they're used to being able to drive "downtown" (or at least "inside the metro area") for specialized care as we talk about here.

If all the people were moving in only from places like Bee Branch, Dardanelle, Searcy and Arkadelphia I think there'd be a psychological mindset to go a longer distance for medical care. It will be interesting how the laws of supply and demand work in this metro area for years to come.

[Aporkalypse]

Again, (and this is just psychology and speculation, but) all these folks that are moving here are from places like Atlanta and Dallas and L.A. and Nashville where they're used to being able to drive "downtown" (or at least "inside the metro area") for specialized care as we talk about here.

If all the people were moving in only from places like Bee Branch, Dardanelle, Searcy and Arkadelphia I think there'd be a psychological mindset to go a longer distance for medical care. It will be interesting how the laws of supply and demand work in this metro area for years to come.

People can't dictate too much, though, because cost dictates so much. Again, all it would take to really push NWA medical care forward is to get rid of the duplication - have one very large hospital with a couple of small satellites. The problem is each city wants its own medical system and wants that one to be the best so things are developing in parallel. Unless one hospital system gets the money to buy up the others you'll never see a situation like that. I can't imagine that if NWA could develop one 500 bed hospital it couldn't do all of the things you guys want.

You bring up a good point, though. The number and quality of specialists is little different in NWA than it is in suburban DFW, Atlanta, or elsewhere. It's the large tertiary care centers in the heart of the city that NWA is missing.

[slyder1]

That was the point of my post. Other than having a VA hospital in Fayetteville, Springfield is years ahead in terms of the medical community for the reasons I said - age and basin of influence. A similar gap would exist between Springfield and Little Rock where you have a large medical school, Children's Hospital, Heart Hospital, etc for the same reason - larger area of influence.

Ohhh, I see I guess I misinterperated your post. Sorry

[mcheiss]

The chancellor or spokesperson for the Medical School in Wichita said that if UAMS builds a satellite campus, it will more than likely be built in NWA.