Van Buren hospital now Sparks Medical
Summit Medical Center has been renamed Sparks Medical Center-Van Buren, according to a Wednesday news release.
Sparks Medical Center-Van Buren expects to break ground later in the year on an estimated $10 million, 12-bed emergency department located at the front of the hospital, a spokesman said.
The 103-bed Sparks Medical Center-Van Buren and the 492-bed Sparks Regional Medical Center in Fort Smith make up the Sparks Health System. The two hospitals serve a 12-county area near Fort Smith, including portions of Arkansas and Oklahoma.
New signage will complete the re-branding campaign by the end of the second quarter.
The hospitals are two of 10 hospitals in the state owned by publicly traded Community Health Systems Inc. In 2014, Community Health Systems finalized its purchase of the two hospitals as part of a $7.6 billion deal to acquire rival Health Management Associates Inc.
Brentwood, Tenn.-based Community Health Systems is now one of the largest hospital companies in the U.S.
-- John Magsam
Bear State Financial to rename branches
The name of First Federal Bank in Harrison, which has branches in Bentonville, Fayetteville, Springdale and Rogers, will be changed to Bear State Bank by the end of March, its parent company said Wednesday.
First Federal is a division of Bear State Financial of Little Rock. Bear State Financial is merging all of its bank charters under one name.
First Federal has two branches in Fayetteville and one each in Bentonville, Springdale and Rogers.
Other banks and their branches that will change their names to Bear State Bank include First National Bank of Hot Springs and Heritage Bank of Jonesboro.
-- David Smith
Arkansas Index up, but 10 stocks drop
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, rose 0.09 to 393.42 on Wednesday.
"U.S. stocks ended mixed, trading in a narrow range on Wednesday, as investors interpreted minutes from the Federal Reserve's latest policy meeting," said John Blackwell, senior vice president and managing director of equity trading at Stephens Inc. in Little Rock. "The Arkansas Index moved higher as seven advanced while 10 declined."
America's Car-Mart climbed 2.9 percent on average volume.
Deltic Timber gained 2.8 percent in normal trading.
Windstream lost 2.3 percent in light trading.
Total volume of the index was 18.3 million shares.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business on 02/19/2015