FAYETTEVILLE -- The top floor of Washington Regional Medical Center's new Women and Infants Center will offer a home-away-from-home for young patients and their families when it opens later this year.
Ronald McDonald House Charities of Arkoma and medical center personnel gathered at the hospital Tuesday to announce Northwest Arkansas's first Ronald McDonald House.
Ronald McDonald House
The first Ronald McDonald house was built in Philadelphia in 1974. There are 179 houses across the United States and houses in 53 countries and regions across the globe.
Source: Stephanie Medford, president and CEO, Arkoma chapter.
"The goal is to keep families together and lift the burdens of where to sleep and where to eat and relax while remaining only steps away from their child," said Stephanie Medford, president and CEO of the charity's Arkoma chapter.
The house will serve about 1,500 families each year and will be one of two new houses built in the state this year, Medford said.
The state's first Ronald McDonald House opened in Little Rock in 1980. A new, 32,000-square-foot house is under development in the state's capital and will open in November. The original and new Little Rock houses are freestanding, unattached to a hospital.
Construction of the five-story, 140,000-square-foot Women and Infants Center is scheduled to be done in the fall. The house will take up more than 5,600 square feet on the building's top floor and should be done by the end of the year, said Tim Hudson, executive director of the Washington Regional Medical Foundation.
"Once it was known that our project was going to significantly expand the number of neonatal intensive care unit beds, we realized a partnership with Ronald McDonald House would be a great thing to add to support our patients and families," Hudson said.
The number of NICU beds at the hospital will increase from 12 to 34, Hudson said.
The house will accommodate patients 18 years and younger and their families, providing six bedroom suites with full baths, laundry room, dining room, playroom and a kitchen with a fully stocked pantry.
Hospital officials approached Ronald McDonald House about adding a house to the hospital about a year and a half ago, Medford said.
"This hospital is so in tune with what their patients' needs are, so they came to us and said, 'We know there's a need and there's about to be a greater need,"' she said.
Once a discussion began, the charity performed a medical feasibility study to get a census of the number patients 18 and younger, the average length of their stay and how far they live from the hospital, Medford said.
"Then we had to look at our own financial capabilities," Medford said. "Not only can we raise the money or do we have the money to build the Ronald McDonald house, but do we also have the ongoing support to operate it?"
The charity is working to raise $1 million to create the house and is about 40 percent toward the goal, according to Medford, who said she hopes the announcement of the partnership with the hospital will spur fundraising for the house.
Fundraisers will be held to support creating the house. Owners of local McDonald's franchises also will contribute, and donations at local restaurants will help fund the house, Medford said.
Bill and Walter Mathews are members of the board of directors for the Arkoma chapter. The Mathews brothers helped found the chapter in the late 1990s and own 35 McDonald's franchises, with their restaurants primarily located in Benton and Washington counties. They have donated money to build a kitchen in the house.
"It was always our dream to have a Ronald McDonald House since we (helped) found the charity," Bill Mathews said. "This is a very big passion for us."
The charity has Ronald McDonald family rooms at Mercy Hospital in Fort Smith and Mercy Medical Center in Rogers. A family room is about 3,200 square feet with fewer bedrooms and a smaller kitchen than a Ronald McDonald House. Unlike the house, the family room doesn't allow other children in the family to stay overnight, Medford said.
A house's size is proportional to the number of child patients the host hospital serves.
"There are Ronald McDonald Houses that are 104 bedrooms in Chicago for example," Medford said. "It's all based on the census of the hospital and the community's need. So the more children being treated at the hospital, the more bedrooms you need."
Medford and Mathews anticipate future expansion for the house.
"They're going to have to continue to expand to accommodate the population growth," Mathews said. "I imagine we'll be talking with the hospital in the next few years about how we can expand."
Woody Bassett, who serves on the hospital's board, said he and fellow directors have supported bringing the charity to the hospital since the idea was first presented.
"It benefits the hospital because it's going to benefit our patients and their families in all the years to come," Bassett said. "We want this hospital to be the best it can be, and having the Ronald McDonald House is another fine way to help us be all that we can be for our patients, their families and the community."
NW News on 05/04/2016