Local hospital systems are opening large clinics to meet the area’s growing demand for medical services.
Mercy Northwest Arkansas is opening a new 30,000-square-foot multi-specialty clinic today that will feature an expanded lab and imaging services, a pharmacy and coffee shop.
Northwest Medical Center is opening an 8,929-square-foot clinic in a new 15,465-square-foot building near the Pinnacle Hills Promenade in Rogers in January. It will also provide digital X-ray and lab services.
Both new clinics will offer extended hours.
Leaders at both hospital systems said the multi-specialty operations will offer what consumers say they want and will move patients out of emergency rooms and into clinics.
AT A GLANCE
Grand Opening
Mercy’s Bella Vista Clinic at the Shewmaker Family Campus opens today. A public open house is from 4 to 6 p.m. Thursday with a program starting at 5 p.m. The clinic is located at 1 Mercy Way at the intersection of Dartmoor Road and Lambeth Drive, across from Cooper Elementary School.
The idea of clinics moving to more patient-centered models and away from individual offices is a growing national trend. A report released by The Physicians Foundation, “The Future of Medical Practice,” states the multi-specialty models help physicians diversity services and increase productivity.
Dr. Stephen Goss, president of Mercy Clinic Northwest Arkansas, said the Bella Vista clinic ties all the health care pieces together.
“The idea is to keep the whole patient in mind,” he said.
The new Bella Vista clinic marks Mercy’s second, and largest, hybrid office that provides expanded medical services. The clinic is at 1 Mercy Way at the intersection of Dartmoor Road and Lambeth Drive.
“We are an experiment in the making,” said Hannah Flannigan, director of physician practice for Mercy Northwest Arkansas. “One-stop availability is our goal. We want to make this as easy as possible for the patient.”
The clinic will employ about 75 workers, with some medical staff rotating through on various days.
Three doctors and four nurse practitioners will be permanently located in the clinic. A cardiologist and obstetrician-gynecologist will be on staff daily and other specialists, including an audiologist and endocrinologist, will work set days.
Physician offices are located in pods off one side of the building. The other side houses the imaging and lab facilities. Separating the two medical service sides is Cornerstone Pharmacy and Callaghan’s, a coffee bar that will serve grab-and-go food and drinks. The clinic also has a conference room that can be used by community members for free.
Providers from the primary care clinic at Sugar Creek Center and the nearby Mercy Heart and Vascular Center will close and move into the clinic. Goss said the clinic on Lancashire Boulevard will remain open.
The Bella Vista multi-specialty clinic was a key component of a $90 million master plan Mercy announced in 2011. The medical system created the master plan following a community roundtable discussion in April 2010 that gathered input from 90 area residents.
The $13 million clinic received a $1.5 million donation from the Shewmaker family. The clinic sits on the Shewmaker Family Campus across the street from Cooper Elementary School.
Mercy’s Northwest Arkansas operation includes a hospital in Rogers and 22 clinics.
Northwest Medical Plaza at Pinnacle will have up to five physicians, said Pat Driscoll, hospital spokeswoman. She said advanced nurse practitioners may also be added.
Northwest opened 12 clinics this year and four in 2012, Driscoll said. Northwest Health Systems operates hospitals in Bentonville, Springdale and Johnson and 40 clinics across the region.
“In that process we closed small one- and two-person clinics and merged them into more accessible and visible locations,” she said.
The new Rogers clinic sits off New Hope Road and will have 70 parking spaces. New clinics average a dozen parking spaces per physician.
Beth Van Gilder, Northwest’s interim vice president of physician services, called the new facilities “super clinics” that are located in spots central to where patients are already coming from.
“It’s nice for people to not have to come all the way to the hospital for services they can get closer to home,” she said.
Van Gilder pointed to the system’s clinic at Sugar Creek Center in Bella Vista that opened just over a year ago as a model they use at other clinics.
“We originally planned to move two physicians from older spots over and added two more,” she said. “All of a sudden people were coming in saying they saw the clinics signs and didn’t realize one was so close.”
Northwest will also open a clinic in April on Butterfield Coach Road in Springdale that will be very similar to the Rogers Pinnacle site. The Butterfield Coach Road clinic will also have a pediatrician.
Van Gilder said services offered at each clinic varies on how close it is to other sites and services offered there.
In addition to accepting walk-in patients, the clinics can also see patients who may have otherwise gone to the hospital, such as someone who fell and isn’t sure if they have a broken bone.
“When you keep those patients out of the emergency room it helps everyone,” she said. “It allows the ER to focus on the patients who need those services.”
Northwest does not own clinic sites but signs long-term leases with developers. This allows the medical system to use money elsewhere, she said. Cost per clinic, for equipment and furniture, runs around $500,000.