News Taffy

By Audrey Poff

NEA Baptist Heath System officials hosted a topping out ceremony Wednesday, celebrating a milestone in the construction of its new $400 million medical campus being built along U.S 49 in Jonesboro.

NEA Baptist Clinic and NEA Baptist Memorial Hospital colleages gathered with members of the local community and construction workers on the site shortly before noon as the last two beams used in the construction of the new NEA Baptist medical campus were simultaneously hoisted to the top of the future clinic and future hospital. The beams had been signed by NEA Baptist Health System colleagues during the previous week in preparation for today's ceremony.

Construction of the new NEA Baptist medical campus began in April 2011 and is expected to be complete next summer. Officials tout the campus as being fully integrated combining NEA Baptist Memorial Hospital and specialists of NEA Baptist Cinic in a Mayo Clinic model of a campus featuring an adjacent clinic/hospital. The campus will consist of 765,703 total square footage. The hospital will be a six-story building, opening with 181 beds with expansion space to 300 beds. The clinic will consist of two multi-specialty buildings, one three story building and one five-story building. In addition, a free standing, 34,0000-square-foot cancer treatment center is being constructed on the north end of the campus.

The topping out ceremony is a tradition that can be traced back for centuries to Europe, a news release stated. "These beams signed by all of our colleagues represent our contribution to history. We are proud to fly flags representing our great country and state. The evergreen tree that will sit on top of our building symbolizes growth and good luck."

Speakers for today's ceremony included Dr. Ray Hall, founder of NEA Baptist Clinic; Stephen C. Reynolds, president and chief executive officer, Baptist Memorial Health Care; Brad Parsons, administrator and CEO, NEA Baptist Memorial Hospital; Harold D. Petty, director of medical design, principal, Earl Swensson Associates Inc.; Mike Simzisko, senior superintendent, Hoar Construction; Darrell King, CEO, NEA Baptist Clinic; and Steve Tipton, NEA Baptist Memorial Hospital chaplain. 

The construction of the new medical campus represents the single largest investment in a community by Baptist Health Care and the largest health care investment in Arkansas in the last decade. Approximately 650 construction workers are currently employed on the site. At its peak, the project is expected to employ a construction crew consisting of more than 800 workers. 

At the conclusion of the ceremony, the crowd watched as the two beams, each topped with an evergreen and flanked by a U.S. and state flag, were hoisted to the top of the buildings.

For more information about NEA Baptist Health System, visit neabaptist.com or neabaptistclinic.com.