Leaders of Northwest Health Systems have gone off the deep end.
Whoa. Bold statement, right? Let me clarify what we’re talking about here.
Don’t read that to suggest they’ve gone crazy. Instead, you should know that “off the deep end” is the phrasing used by Chief Executive Officer Dan McKay when discussing Northwest Health’s commitment to a region-wide network of clinics.
McKay is hoping the imagery will accurately illustrate how invested the health-care provider is in its rapidly growing clinic model. This month the hospital system opens a Rogers location that will be clinic No. 36 in the two-county area. Construction has begun on a 13,000-square-foot project in Fayetteville off Wedington Drive that should open later this year.
If that seems like a healthy number of clinics for an area of fewer than a half-million people, well, it is.
While including clinics as part of a hospital or healthcare system isn’t a new concept, the volume of these Northwest Health clinics in Benton and Washington counties is substantial. Last year 12 opened. Another three are scheduled to begin operation this year.
It is also worth noting that each clinic is designed and run to fit the needs of nearby residents.
Take the recently opened Bella Vista operation, the network’s most in-demand clinic, for example. It opens at 7:15 each morning, a feature that no doubt makes it popular with the high number of retirees living in the northern Benton County community.
The Fayetteville site, once fully operational, will employ an OB/GYN on staff to accommodate the high number of young professionals with growing families living nearby.
Catering to specific needs of a community is a means of building brand loyalty and funneling those customers, um, clinic patients toward one of Northwest Health’s four hospitals. Unfortunately, somewhere along the way there’s a strong likelihood that folks seeking a shot for chronic sinus infections, sports physicals for the kids and other primary-care services will need hospital stays.
A network of clinics serves to complement the network of hospitals. It is no coincidence that the new clinics are popping up in the fastest-growing sections of Northwest Arkansas.
It makes sense.
Why we’re talking health care here is because each clinic represents a significant financial investment in construction, long-term leases/ building ownership and manpower.
McKay declines to get specific on the money spent by Northwest Health Systems on establishing its clinic operations, but confirms that each location is a “multimillion-dollar project.” We’re talking tens and tens of millions here.
Each clinic employs four to six doctors. Each doctor has a staff of at least five, and the system employs close to 110 doctors at its clinics. What McKay describes as “super clinics” can process up to 200 patients per day.
Northwest Health also spent $12 million in 2013 on an emergency-room face-lift and expansion at Northwest Health’s Springdale hospital. Now the hospital can better accommodate what it says is an average of 40,000 emergency-room visits per year.
Clinic locations are a mix of long-term leases and hospital-built and -owned buildings. Those leases are at least 10 years, which speaks to the fact this is not viewed as a short-term strategy by Northwest Health.
It’s when discussing these long-term leases and clinic ownership that McKay refers to Northwest Health making that leap off the “deep end.”
“We’re committed to the strategy. We don’t pick a location and get out in two to three years,” McKay said. “In all honesty, it’s not without anxiety. This is a significant investment. When you make those kinds of investments,they’re very serious. You want to be financially prudent.” If you have a tip, call Chris Bahn at (479) 365-2972 or email him at [email protected]
Business, Pages 73 on 03/02/2014