Doctors Hospital opening in northwest Arkansas

In Gravette, a town of about 2,300 in extreme northwest Arkansas, the need is particularly poignant: the Gravette Medical Center Hospital closed in 2005 for financial reasons.

Gravette – and Benton County – are in the midst of population growth, which could lead to increased demand for local health care services. Gravette’s population has grown 29 percent since the 2000 census, and in Benton County, which includes Gravette, Siloam Springs, Bentonville and Rogers, population is up 28 percent to 196,000 since 2000.

Enter Doctors Hospital, which plans to reopen Gravette Medical Center Hospital in early 2008.

“We were approached by the community to see if we would reopen the facility,” said Doctors Hospital Director of Communications Carrie Richardson. “This is a project that we’ve contemplated for several months and decided to move forward.”

Doctors Hospital will lease the facility for an undisclosed amount from current owner Lykins Land Holdings LLC and has purchased the hospital operations. Assistant Administrator Alexis Brown said the hospital will be investing “several million dollars” to reopen the hospital.

The Gravette center will offer around-the-clock emergency services and 10 inpatient beds when it opens after the first of the year. Between 30 and 40 doctors, nurses and other employees will be hired for the facility. Applications for those positions already are being accepted, Richardson said, noting that candidate search work is being conducted internally.

Hospital officials have not yet decided if an administrator will be hired to work in Gravette, or operations will be overseen in Springfield, Richardson added.

No expansion of offerings is planned, though Richardson noted that urgent care is among the services that could be added at a later date.

“When we open, it will just be the 24/7 emergency room and the hospital beds, and we’ll see it how it goes,” Richardson added. “Our main priority is to open the hospital and keep it open, so we need to establish that first before we consider any expansion of services.”

Filling the need

Gravette Mayor Bill Howard is excited about the reopening of the hospital, which was one of the things that drew him to the community in the first place.

“I moved here after I retired about 17 years ago, and (the hospital) is one of the reasons I selected this town,” he said. “It’s important for me to have it open again.”

He noted that the town’s residents will not be the only people to benefit from a hospital in Gravette.

“We serve people from Missouri, Oklahoma and the northwest corner of Arkansas,” he said. “It’s important to the whole area.”

Howard said that patients who currently go to the Gravette outpatient clinic are referred either to Siloam Springs, Bentonville or Rogers – each of which are about 20 miles away.

Brown said Gravette fits Doctors Hospital’s pattern of going into small towns that may not have enough local medical services.

“That’s our expertise … developing health systems in those smaller communities,” Brown said. “(The hospital) was a part of that community for many years, and they feel very passionate about it.”

Jim Little, chief financial officer of Siloam Springs Memorial Hospital, said that there is significant overlap in patients between the two towns, though he wasn’t sure how many of the hospital’s patients come from Gravette.

“I’m sure there are some patients that would go to the Gravette hospital because of its proximity that may otherwise have had to go here or elsewhere,” Little said. “We are keeping an eye on (the Gravette hospital) as you would anticipate. But I think there’s plenty of room here for both parties.”

A change in status

As Doctors Hospital prepares to venture into Arkansas, the hospital also is changing its identity.

Beginning Jan. 1, the hospital will be under the ownership of Ozarks Community Hospital, a not-for-profit corporation created in September and registered under Paul Taylor, the hospital’s administrator.

The change, according to Brown, is a result of need for increased support from the community and government agencies that is not available to for-profit hospitals.

“It opens up some more doors for us to provide extra service for underserved markets,” Brown said. “It makes us eligible for some grant funding and other funding items that will let us continue to serve the growing need in north Springfield and some of the surrounding communities.”

Founded in 2000 by a group of 23 investors, including Taylor, the hospital employs more than 600 among its five existing facilities in southwest Missouri. Brown noted, however, that the hospital, which posted net patient revenues of $38 million in 2006, hasn’t paid a dividend to its owners since opening.

In 2002, Doctors Hospital filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, citing Missouri’s cutback in Medicaid reimbursements as a catalyst.

In 2006, as the result of a growing number of self-pay patients, Doctors Hospital cut benefits to all employees, froze salaries, terminated some employees and cut expenses unrelated to care. The hospital’s physicians also voluntarily accepted a 15 percent reduction in compensation and benefits.

In keeping with the hospital’s cost-cutting measures, changing the hospital’s name will be gradual, Brown said, as signs and literature will be replaced with the Ozarks Community Hospital name and logo on an as-needed basis. [[In-content Ad]]