JONESBORO, Ark. — Construction on the new NEA Baptist Health System medical campus will begin within the next month, according to health system officials.
“We are eager to take the next step in this important project,” said Paul Betz, administrator and CEO of NEA Baptist Memorial Hospital. “The new facilities will help us completely transform the way we care for patients because the hospital and the new NEA Baptist Clinic building will be connected. Many of our physicians will be in the same location as the hospital, meaning physicians and hospital staff can work together more easily to provide integrated care to patients.”
Trailers will move onto the construction site this month, and work on the buildings will begin in April. The project, which was designed by architectural firm Earl Swensson Associates Inc., is expected to be complete in the summer of 2013. The new hospital will measure 550,000-square-feet and have 181 beds. An adjoining 213,000-square-foot professional medical office building will house NEA Baptist Clinic’s medical specialists and surgeons, as well as diagnostic testing services. The building will be connected floor by floor with the inpatient hospital.
“The physicians and staff of NEA Baptist Clinic are excited to see the dream of a new medical office building become a reality,” said Darrell King, CEO of NEA Baptist Clinic. “Our building connects each clinic department with the appropriate hospital floor. This type of integrated design enhances our ability to provide patients with a high level of health care and allows our patients and physicians to easily move between the clinic and the hospital for care and testing.”
Said Harold Petty, Earl Swensson Associates’ director of medical design and principal-in-charge of the Jonesboro project, “The opportunity to work with the NEA Baptist Health System and the incorporation of multiple service lines of a large physician group has been an exciting experience for our design team. We’ve been able to align NEA Baptist Clinic’s clinical service lines with that of the new hospital so they become well integrated for high efficiency. This efficiency, in turn, benefits the patients, families, physicians and staff in the achievement of better outcomes in the patient experience. Some of the important design features include easy wayfinding and entry onto the medical campus; a healing, hospitable environment within; and comfortable inpatient rooms filled with natural light.”
NEA Baptist Health System has selected Hoar Construction to build the new integrated medical campus in Jonesboro. The firm has built more than 7 million square feet of health care space.
“We’re grateful that NEA Baptist Health System has expressed their trust in Hoar Construction,” said Rob Burton, president of Hoar Construction. “We’re extremely pleased to be a part of their project team, and we look forward to working with them on a very successful project.”
Hoar Construction is very familiar with Arkansas, having worked on projects throughout the state. One of the company’s recent projects was the Mall at Turtle Creek in Jonesboro. During the construction of the new medical campus, Hoar will work with numerous subcontractors and suppliers, many of those local to the area.
About NEA Baptist Health System
NEA Baptist Health System comprises the 100-bed NEA Baptist Hospital and NEA Baptist Clinic, one of northeast Arkansas’ largest physician groups. The hospital offers a number of inpatient and outpatient services, including surgical services, neurology, cancer care, open-heart surgery, as well as labor and delivery services through the hospital’s Women’s Center. NEA Baptist Clinic’s nearly 100 physicians practice in more than 30 specialties and offer a wealth of services, from weight loss surgery to chemotherapy. For more information about NEA Baptist Health System, please call 870-972-7000 or 870-935-4150 or visit www.neabaptist.com or www.neabaptistclinic.com.
About Earl Swensson Associates Inc.
Earl Swensson Associates is celebrating its 50th anniversary in business this year providing design services in architecture, interior architecture, master planning and space planning to health care clients across the country. ESa is an Evidence-based Design Accreditation and Certification Advocate firm, a program of The Center for Health Design. The firm is also a charter member of the Planetree Visionary Design Network, one of only seven nationally, establishing it as a specialist in evidence-based health care design following the Planetree philosophy and its core components of healing design. For more information, visit www.esarch.com.
About Hoar Construction, LLC
Hoar Construction, established in 1940, has offices in Birmingham, Nashville, Houston, and Orlando. The firm is recognized annually as a top US general contractor and construction manager by Engineering News Record Magazine. Hoar works with clients in the health care, retail, commercial, and industrial markets and provides program management services for many public and private entities. The company currently has projects in 14 states. For more information, visit www.hoarllc.com
