News

HOSPITAL LOOKS TO FUTURE

By Wes Clement/OF THE COMMERCIAL STAFF
Monday, December 29, 2008 3:21 PM CST

Just as Davis Hospital became outdated and in need of replacement, Jefferson Regional Medical Center’s current 40th Avenue facility will one day need to be rebuilt, the president and chief executive officer said.

Following a meeting of the Pine Bluff Rotary Club on Tuesday, Bob Atkinson said a White Hall site controlled by Jefferson Hospital Association on which a JRMC medical and wellness facility is being built could possibly be the location for future rebuilding of the hospital.

“The site in White Hall is 80 acres, so it’s large enough that you could build anything you want,” Atkinson said. He estimated it may be 30 years before the facility is in need of being rebuilt, whether at the 59-acre Pine Bluff site or at White Hall.

The White Hall site on which the medical and wellness facility is being built is adjacent to the southeast intersection of the Interstate 530 northbound offramp and Arkansas 256. The $6.8 million facility is expected to be completed by April 2009, said JRMC spokeswoman Lisa Rowland, who added that construction crews are ahead of schedule.

The facility will include a wellness center, racquet ball courts, retail space and several doctors’ offices.

Atkinson said there have been discussions of also having a bank branch and a coffee shop at the facility as well.

“As the area between White Hall and Little Rock continues to grow, we could develop more out there,” he said. Potential developments mentioned were an additional office building for physicians and medical professionals, an outpatient surgery center and physicians and occupational therapy centers.

Meanwhile, at JRMC’s current facility, administrators are considering the addition of two floors of single-patient rooms on top of the hospital’s north wing.

Atkinson said adding the floors to the wing may be the solution to some of the hospital’s patient rooms becoming outdated or otherwise in need of substitution.

“I believe within the next year or two we will probably decide whether to do that or not, and then there would be another year or two of construction,” Atkinson said.

Some of the hospital’s rooms are semi-private rather than private, which is desired, and are outdated, he said.

Local architect Fred Reed said the building was designed to allow the construction of more floors.

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