CoxHealth buys $2.9M Arnold Vision building

Eight months after ophthalmologists Paul and Priscilla Arnold shut down their south Springfield clinic and moved to northern Arkansas, CoxHealth acquired the $2.9 million-listed Arnold Vision building, 1011 E. Montclair St. The purchase closed for an undisclosed amount Feb. 29, according to broker Dave Murray of R.B. Murray Co. Dave Murray’s brother, Bob Murray, represented CoxHealth, one of three medical users that pursued an acquisition, Dave Murray said.

“I knew it was going to end up probably being one of the two major hospitals that would purchase it,” Paul Arnold said from Mountain Home, Ark., where he and his wife joined Sneed Eye Associates. “That doesn’t give me any heartburn at all, because I’m a realist enough to know that’s just the situation in Springfield.”

Eye on expansion

CoxHealth officials say its Regional Center for Pain Management will move into the building by April 21 and undergo a name change to CoxHealth Center for Advanced Pain Management with a multidisciplinary effort. The pain management clinic has operated for more than 10 years at Cox North hospital, 1423 N. Jefferson Ave.

The clinic’s medical director, Dr. Sadie Holland, said the move will allow for staff and services expansions, and bring the clinic within a mile of the majority of referring physicians at CoxHealth’s south campus, 3801 S. National Ave.

Holland, a doctor of osteopathic medicine, is the only doctor on the clinic’s 10-person staff, but she hopes to add another doctor and a few support staff members. Holland is employed with Ozarks Anesthesia Associates Inc. but works contractually for the pain management clinic. The other staff members are full- and part-time CoxHealth nurses and support specialists.

While little physical work on the building is required, the clinic will add physical therapy, nutrition and behavioral health services to its centralized management of chronic pain, according to Laurie Cunningham, CoxHealth’s vice president of corporate communications.

Holland, who is board-certified in anesthesiology and has fellowship training in pain management, said back pain is the most common ailment the clinic treats. Ozarks Anesthesia Associates’ Web site, www.oaaweb.com, lists such treated pains as neck, abdominal, pelvic, headache, nerve, arthritis, post-surgical, diabetes and cancer. Services listed include nerve blocks, epidural steroid injections, joint injections and radiofrequency nerve ablation.

Cunningham said plans haven’t been made for the use of the 7,600-square-foot Cox North space that will be vacated.

Moving on

The Arnolds four years ago built the 10,514-square-foot building on 1.43 acres near the National Avenue-Battlefield Road intersection.

They closed their independent practice in June because of what they called an anti-competitive medical market in Springfield. Their business suffered, they said, because they weren’t in the provider networks for CoxHealth and St. John’s.

“Cox and St. John’s have kind of divided the medical community,” Paul Arnold told Springfield Business Journal last year. “We were cut off from all referrals from both health systems.”

Paul Arnold said they have established a successful practice in Mountain Home, where they receive referrals from Baxter Regional Medical Center.

Arnold said he and his wife are relieved to have sold their Springfield property, and they’re happy that CoxHealth got “a good deal on a great building.”[[In-content Ad]]