News Taffy

Story by Audrey Hanes, Photo by Shaila Creekmore

This Sunday, Dec. 15, NEA Baptist Health Care System will hold an open house for its highly anticipated new hospital and clinic. It will allow the community to see the new, fully integrated medical campus build that includes the NEA Baptist Memorial Hospital and NEA Baptist Clinic.

The $400 million investment is one of the largest health care investments ever made in the state of Arkansas. The new facilities follow the Mayo Clinic model of a side-by-side clinic-hospital campus. The new hospital will be a six-story structure with 181 beds with expansion space for an additional 300 beds. The clinic will consist of two multispecialty physician structures.

The campus will also house a freestanding 34,000-square-foot advanced treatment center featuring radiation therapy, chemotherapy, clinical research and other supportive services.

In a special VIP Reception held earlier today, where Gov. Mike Beebe, Brad Parsons, Darrell King and several others spoke during the program that preceded the health care system’s ribbon cutting ceremony. During that reception, Baptist Memorial Health Care President and CEO Stephen C. Reynolds also made the announcement that Jonesboro’s Wallace and Jama Fowler recently made the largest donation in Baptist Memorial Health Care’s 101-year history.

The $5 million gift made to the NEA Baptist Charitable Foundation will be used to create the Fowler Family Patient Assistance Endowment. In their honor, the NEA Baptist Cancer Center will be named the Fowler Family Center for Cancer Care. The 34,000-square-foot center is the only facility of its kind in Northeast Arkansas and combines all components of cancer care under one roof.

The NEA Baptist Health Care System is estimated to open for business mid-January 2014.