Mercy expansion plans in Northwest Arkansas

Here they grow again! Mercy, which is one of the amazing sponsors here on nwaMotherlode, is experiencing huge growth. They recently announced a $247 million expansion plan here in Northwest Arkansas.

That means we’ll have even more medical care options available in our area as well as growth in health care jobs. Here are a few of the things we’ll be seeing soon as the expansion plans get underway.

• A new patient tower that will take Mercy Hospital Northwest Arkansas from 200 beds to 300-plus beds.
• Addition of multiple primary care and specialty clinics in Benton County and north Washington County.
• Creation and recruitment of new health care jobs, including physicians, advanced practitioners, nurses and other health care co-workers.
• Enhancements to the hospital’s already robust areas of specialty care, including the heart and vascular center and women’s and children’s services.
• Establishment of a University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences community internal medicine residency program in partnership with the Veterans Health Care System of the Ozarks in Fayetteville. The program will provide training to eight doctors the first year, growing to 24 doctors in three years.

Some of the expansion plans are already in progress. For example, there’s an interim renovation of the Level IIIA Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) which is great for babies born in Northwest Arkansas. There’s also a renovation going on for the 7th floor of the hospital, which will mean the addition of 24 inpatient beds.

NWA is also getting a new hybrid cardiac catheterization lab which provides technology for advanced heart procedures that weren’t currently being done in our area.

And good news for hospital visitors… the parking lot is getting bigger, too, by 500 spaces.

Stay tuned for more exciting additions coming soon.