Mercy health system is beginning the second phase of a decade-long expansion of the services it offers in Northwest Arkansas. The new phase will bring the investments in the region by the Chesterfield, Missouri-based health system to nearly $1 billion
since 2016.
Mercy continues a major expansion of its heath care facilities and services in Northwest Arkansas. It plans to build a cancer center as depicted in this architectural rendering.
Phase two work will total about $500 million. Planned improvements include the addition of a cancer center and the expansion of the emergency department and isolation rooms at Mercy Hospital Northwest Arkansas in Rogers.
Mercy also is building out shelled space in the hospital with the potential to increase the facility's bed count to nearly 400 from 245.
Mercy plans to nearly double the number of primary care physicians and specialists in the hospital's network throughout Northwest Arkansas and add clinic locations in the region. This will increase access to primary care, neuroscience, emergency care,
women's and children's services, orthopedics, gastroenterology and behavioral health. Mercy also is adding more urgent care and outpatient infusion and imaging services.
Mercy Northwest Arkansas has completed the first phase of the work. That included the construction of a seven-story tower, an orthopedic and spine unit, and an inpatient rehabilitation unit, and expanded neurology care, all at Mercy Hospital Northwest
Arkansas.
In Springdale, about 11 miles south of Rogers, Mercy built a multispecialty clinic that includes an emergency room.
In a separate project, the system expanded Mercy Hospital Fort Smith's emergency room and added 26 intensive care beds to bring ICU capacity to 64 patients. The hospital has a bed count of 257.
Elsewhere in the Fort Smith area, Mercy added a rehabilitation hospital and consolidated orthopedic services last year at an orthopedic hospital it had opened in 2014.
The U.S. Census Bureau has ranked Northwest Arkansas as the sixth fastest growing midsized metropolitan area in the nation.