Area hospitals provide compassionate care

With the many options for healthcare in Northwest Arkansas, residents’ health needs are met with outstanding quality and care. Arkansas Children’s Northwest

In August 2015, Arkansas Children’s, Inc. announced plans to build a freestanding children’s hospital in Springdale, Ark., to advance pediatric healthcare in the region and provide care close to home for the more than 200,000 children. Current plans for Arkansas Children’s Northwest include 233,613 square feet of inpatient beds, emergency care, diagnostic services and clinical space. The campus will also include nature trails and gardens for patients and their families, as well as a helipad and refueling station for the Angel One Transport team.

In September 2016, Arkansas Children’s board members and staff hosted a topping out ceremony for donors and volunteers on the construction site and future home of Arkansas Children’s Northwest. The crowd cheered as a beam covered in signatures from supporters was raised into its place as the highest beam on the steel structure. In the weeks leading up to the celebration, it was transported to corporate headquarters at Tyson Foods, Inc.; Walmart; J.B. Hunt Transport Services, Inc.; George’s, Inc. and the Arkansas Children’s Clinic at Lowell, where employees were invited to sign their names and write messages of support. Guests of the Topping Out Celebration added their signatures, as well.

Arkansas Children’s Northwest is being built on 37 acres of land donated by David and Cathy (George) Evans, Gary and Robin George and their families. This $7.5 million gift represents a historic investment in the future of pediatric health care in Arkansas. The Northwest Arkansas community has now pledged $61.85 million for the construction of Arkansas Children’s Northwest.

Arkansas Children’s Northwest is scheduled to open in January 2018. The campus is an integral part of Arkansas Children’s plan to transform the health of children in Arkansas by expanding access to pediatric services across the region. Mercy Northwest Arkansas

Having been a fixture in the community since 1951, Mercy Northwest Arkansas has transitioned from a smalltown hospital into a health care destination with more than 203 integrated primary care and multi-specialty providers in 30 clinics throughout the region. As the area’s only nonprofit, faith-based health system, Mercy Northwest Arkansas is honored to live out the Mercy heritage of providing compassionate care and exceptional service. Over the last 20 years, Mercy Northwest Arkansas has invested close to $400 million in the community, significantly improving the quality of health care delivery while impacting the local economy.

Mercy Northwest Arkansas announced a $247 million expansion in April 2016 that increased capacity in its hospital and clinics to better serve Northwest Arkansas’ growing population. In addition to adding a new 7-story, 279,000 SF hospital tower, the expansion includes the opening of seven new specialty and primary care clinics in the coming years.

Mercy delivers high quality OB/GYN care with the reassurance of Level IIIA neonatal intensive care unit technology and capabilities. Mothers can expect a safe and pleasant birth experience that includes access to inpatient and outpatient lactation consultants. Mercy offers maternity classes covering a range of topics throughout pregnancy and birth. In addition, Mercy offers care for patients who are uninsured or who have Medicaid.

The comprehensive cardiovascular program Mercy Northwest Arkansas has built is an example of the depths the health system takes to ensure excellence in patient care. The cardiac program consists of an 11-bed procedure unit dedicated solely to heart patients, four cardiac catheterization labs, Arkansas’ first robotic C-arm aiding cardiologists in receiving better heart images faster and the ability to perform minimally invasive procedures, a cardiac imaging suite, nuclear medicine cameras, five echocardiogram machines, two nuclear stress rooms and one echo stress room and more. Three cardiovascular surgeons are part of the heart team.

Last fall, Mercy opened a redesigned hybrid cardiac catheterization lab with all-new cardiac imaging equipment in a larger space and with surgical capabilities. This lab provides technology for advanced heart procedures not currently being performed in the region.

A freestanding emergency department at Mercy Bella Vista Shewmaker Family Campus was the first of its kind in the region and within Mercy. Mercy Northwest Arkansas is proud to provide this much needed service for the community and appreciates the many partners and collaborators that made the endeavor possible.

Patients can find a provider who’s right for the individual and the family by visiting mercy.net/nwa or call 479-3388000 to schedule an appointment.

In 2016, Mercy was named one of the top five large U.S. health systems by Truven, an IBM company. Mercy has more than 40,000 co-workers and more than 2,000 Mercy Clinic physicians in Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. Mercy also has outreach ministries in Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. Northwest Health System

Northwest Health includes five hospitals — NMC-Bentonville, NMC-Springdale, Siloam Springs Regional Hospital, Northwest Health Physicians’ Specialty Hospital, and Willow Creek Women’s Hospital. With a combined active medical staff of more than 540 physicians, 2,200 employees and 487 beds, Northwest Health assures high-quality care that is compassionately delivered. That involves regularly investing in new services, facilities and technology, as well as recruiting new physicians and staff to the area and implementing new and improved processes and programs. All of these investments benefit patients, their families and friends and all of the Northwest Health System staff.

The 222-bed Northwest Medical Center in Springdale offers the latest generation robotic assisted surgical technology for gynecology, urology, colorectal and general surgery, a nationally accredited bariatric surgery program, and inpatient rehabilitation. Both NMC-Springdale and the 128-bed NMC-Bentonville are chest pain accredited. Both hospitals carry the gold seal from The Joint Commission for their total hip and knee replacement program and NMC-B has an 11-bed dedicated Orthopedic and Spine Center. Both are equipped with open heart and cardiac catheterization labs and are proud partners with the “Arkansas SAVES” program for stroke education and treatment. The two emergency departments are the only to offer a 30-minute time pledge to assure patients are seen by a physician within 30 minutes of arrival.

The 8-bed dedicated pediatric unit at NMC-Bentonville admits patients with ailments ranging from fevers to

more complicated cases, allowing patients and their families to remain in a familiar, local environment while still receiving the highest level of care. NMC-Bentonville can also care for babies that are born premature or ill who require individualized care and close monitoring in a special environment in their 6-bed Level II Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU).

Northwest’s modern hospitalist program assures quality and timely responsiveness to patients who are in the hospital by physicians dedicated specifically to their care in partnership with their admitting physician.

Willow Creek Women’s Hospital is a 64bed facility and the only dedicated women’s hospital in Northwest Arkansas offering a Level III Neonatal ICU. On the campus is the only 3D mammography technology in Northwest Arkansas, offering women an upgraded option for breast imaging.

Northwest Health Physicians’ Specialty Hospital is a 20-bed facility specializing in advanced spine surgery, urology, podiatry, minimally invasive general surgery, weight loss surgery, orthopedic and sports medicine, gynecological surgery, interventional pain management and cosmetic reconstructive surgery.

Siloam Springs Regional Hospital, accredited by The Joint Commission, is a 42bed facility with inpatient and outpatient care; emergency medicine; medical, surgical, and intensive care services.

There are also 40 primary care, specialty and urgent care clinics conveniently located throughout the area for residents. These include urgent care clinics, open 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. seven days a week, senior health, pediatrics, cardiology, orthopedics, gastroenterology, sleep medicine and sleep lab, neonatology and wound care.

More information is available by calling 800-734-2014 or by visiting northwesthealth.com.

Washington Regional Medical Center

Washington Regional’s mission is to improve the health of people in Northwest Arkansas through compassionate, high-quality care, prevention and wellness education. A non-profit organization, Washington Regional allotted more than $16 million in 2015 to charity care, uncompensated care and community health services such as WelcomeHealth (formerly NWA Free Health Center), Washington County Department of Health (Prenatal Clinic and HIV Clinic), research, tuition assistance for healthcare professionals, community health education and support for area nursing education programs.

The commitment of its physicians, nurses and staff members led to a number of honors for Washington Regional in the past year. The independent organization CareChex® - a division of Comparion® Medical Analytics ranked Washington Regional in the top 10 percent of hospitals nationwide in its 2016 Medical Excellence and Patient Safety ratings in 19 different ar-

eas. Additionally, Washington Regional was recognized by Arkansas Medicaid and Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care for outstanding performance in patient quality initiatives.

Washington Regional, a leader in providing advanced stroke treatment and neurosurgical options, is the first healthcare provider in its primary service area – Benton, Boone, Carroll, Madison and Washington counties – to earn The Joint Commission’s Gold Seal of Approval® and the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association’s Heart-Check mark for Advanced Certification for Primary Stroke Centers.

Cardiovascular teams at Washington Regional’s Walker Heart Institute continue to pioneer new treatment options

and surgical techniques, including two recent firsts for Northwest Arkansas: the CardioMEMS HF System for heart failure monitoring and the EMBLEM S-ICD System for less-invasive protection against sudden cardiac arrest.

Ozarks Community Hospital

Ozarks Community Hospital and clinics’ mission is dedicated to providing exceptional healthcare and preventive services to all patients in an atmosphere of compassion, respect and dignity, with a commitment to care for the under-served and to improve access to care.

A community-driven health system made up of two hospitals and many clinics located throughout the Ozarks, Ozarks Community Hospital is the lowest cost healthcare system in the nation based on hospital and physician utilization by Medicare beneficiaries.

More than 80 percent of patients visiting Ozarks Community Hospital have governmental insurance or are self pay. The hospital provides discounts of 40 percent or more to uninsured patients, and has never sued a patient to collect a bill. They have never reported a patient to a credit bureau for nonpayment, do not receive public or private support and pay all local, state and federal taxes.

Ozarks Community Hospital of Gravette is located at 1101 Jackson Street, and can be reached by phone at (479) 787-5291.