by
John R. Fischer, Senior Reporter | May 11, 2023
Arkansas Children's is expanding its facilities over the next eight years. (Photo of Arkansas Children's Hospital, courtesy of Arkansas Children's)
Arkansas Children’s will invest nearly $318 million over the next eight years into adding more beds, an ambulatory surgery center, and redesigned clinical spaces for multidisciplinary care at at Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock and Arkansas Children’s Northwest in Springdale to better provide and care for the growing complexity of pediatric conditions.
The planning and engineering teams estimate that they will add 265,000 new square feet of facilities and an additional renovation of more than 170,000 square feet, and will share detailed schematics this fall.
“This plan includes recruiting more than 100 new providers and 400 new team members, adding new programs, and building and modernizing facilities,” said Arkansas Children’s president and CEO Marcy Doderer, FACHE, in a statement.
The ambulatory surgery center will facilitate new inpatient and outpatient surgical approaches, according to Doderer.
Over the last few years, the pediatric health system has made other expansions at its regional clinics, including adding specialty care capacity in Jonesboro, opening a primary care clinic in Pine Bluff, and adding additional care spaces in Springdale.
It also opened Arkansas Children’s Northwest in 2018, the only hospital and emergency room in the region to exclusively treat children. The facility is 234,000 square feet, and has a pediatric surgery unit with five operating rooms, a full range of diagnostic and ancillary services, outdoor gardens, nature trails, and a helipad, all on 37 acres of donated land,
according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
In July 2021, J.B. Hunt Transport Services said it would donate $1 million annually for future expansions of Arkansas Children’s Northwest, having previously donated $5 million in 2016 for its construction.
Polk Stanley Wilcox and Cromwell are the architects of record, and Nabholz will serve as construction manager for the expansion.
The hospital is still hiring companies and partners for the project.
The project is set to begin later this summer.
