story by Rose Ann Pearce
rapearce@thecitywire.com
The old saying “spring is bursting out all over” might seem to apply to Northwest Health System as the hospital expands its clinical presence in Rogers, suburban Springdale and Fayetteville as well as a facelift underway at Willow Creek Women’s Hospital in Johnson.
The system is poised to spend about $3 million to expand its neonatal intensive care unit at Northwest Medical Center in Bentonville and a major remodel at Willow Creek. Northwest Health employed 1,800 workers in 2014 and added 32 employees with the clinic expansion. More jobs will open up as new physicians come on board throughout the year and additional support employees are hired, said Sharif Omar, CEO for the system.
“The goal is to provide patients with access to primary care so they don’t have to go to the emergency room,” Omar said.
He joined Northwest about 10 months ago, bringing over 15 years of hospital management experience to the region. He is a Louisiana native and earned a bachelor’s degree in biology and a master’s degree in health administration from Tulane University. 
Omar said he’s committed to patient care. He spent five days on the roof of the Tulane hospital in New Orleans with patients in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
The local system boasts just under 500 beds at its hospitals in Bentonville and Springdale. The system is under the umbrella of Franklin, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems. CHS, a publicly traded company (NYSE: CYH), also owns Sparks Health System in Fort Smith, and operates Sparks Medical Center – Van Buren.
PRIMARY CARE
“Health care is not cheap,” Omar said. “We want to provide better management of patient care to keep patients out of the emergency rooms.”
One of the new models for health care is a system aligned with primary care facilities that stretch across a region and into the rural areas to provide more local access where populations reside. A new clinic opened late last year on Wedington Drive in west Fayetteville while the Pinnacle-Rogers clinic has been renovated to accommodate more doctors during extended hours of operation.
“We’re clearing ground for the new Elm Springs location,” he said.
The new clinic will offer primary care and urgent care services. It is under construction on Elm Springs Road, near Wal-Mart and Macadoodles, west of Interstate 49 and will replace the nearby clinic. The Elm Springs location is expected to open in early January, depending on the weather. The new clinic hours will range 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
“We’re growing our footprint,” Omar said, noting a new pain management physician has joined the staff and a new pediatrician is on board to extend the hours of operation to 11 p.m. at the Children’s Clinic at Har-Ber Meadows in Springdale.
WOMEN’S HEALTH
The renovation at Willow Creek is expected to last throughout most of this year as patients rooms are renovated with new furniture and a new food service agenda so that each meal is prepared specific to a patient’s needs and request, Omar said. The exterior of the hospital also will be updated. The total cost of the package is about $1.5 million.
Willow Creek is described on the system’s website as a 64-bed full service facility dedicated solely to women’s health needs, offering everything from obstetrics to a Level III Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and maternal-fetal medicine for high risk pregnancies as well as the first three-dimensional mammography technology in Northwest Arkansas.
“Willow Creek has been the jewel in the region” in terms of the services and staffing there to support pregnant women, Omar said. “No one can do it better than us,” he added.
In a general hospital setting, new moms enter through the emergency rooms before being sent to the obstetrics unit for delivery, he said. That doesn’t happen at Willow Creek where 97% of patients are pregnant. At Willow Creek, the maternity ward is front and center because it’s the major component of care provided at that facility.
Northwest Health said it makes a significant contribution to Arkansas’ population growth because 10% of all babies born in Arkansas occur at Bentonville and Willow Creek hospitals, according to hospital statistics.
The hospital also boasts the only fetal physician in the area to serve high-risk moms. And, the hospital offers a NICU graduate program to follow a baby’s progress for two years once he or she leaves the NICU. It’s like a one-stop shop for unique situations, according to Omar.
BENTONVILLE EXPANSION
Northwest Medical Center in Bentonville is adding six new beds to its NICU, under the direction of Willow Creek, because of the expanding needs of new moms.
The Bentonville facility also offers an orthopedic unit where an orthopedic spine surgeon will join the staff in September. Other new physicians, specializing in endocrinology and rheumatology and behavior health (mental health), are set to join the system this year.
Bentonville’s Northwest facility is a 128-bed acute care services with cardiac care; maternity suites with home-like setting; and a rehabilitation program for joint, muscle and bone injuries, according to the website.
The hospital also works with school districts and offers a one-call transfer system for transporting patients from rural areas in need of critical care.
SPRINGDALE BASE
The main hospital facility has 222 beds and has served the Springdale community with acute care services for more than 50 years. The hospital was the first in Arkansas to offer minimally invasive robotic-assisted surgery and the first in the state to perform an open-heart surgery, according to its website.
This flagship base underwent a $12 million facelift in 2012 which included moving the hospital entrance so it faces Thompson Street (U.S. 71) with 200 new parking spaces and a fountain entrance out front. The building expansion/renovation also nearly doubled the number of emergency exam rooms adding about 30,000 square feet in order to provide faster service. The added space allows for 10,000 additional patient visits a year, according to Patricia Driscoll, spokeswoman for Northwest Health System.
Additional space that was included in the $12 million expansion resulted in three more exam rooms, a trauma room waiting area and admitting services in the emergency department. An additional waiting room and lobby were also added in the hospital’s new main entrance.
Access is also a focus of the hospital.
“We need to make it convenient for consumers rather than having our clinics open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. when people are at work,” he said. “Primary care is the key. Education of the public will take time, essentially by the ones, one person at a time.”