Wal-Mart, Walmart Foundation donate $8 million for Springdale children's hospital

Kathleen McLaughlin (right), president of the Walmart Foundation, and Marcy Dodderer, president and chief executive officer of the Arkansas Children's Hospital (at podium), get some help revealing an $8 million gift from the foundation to the hospital Monday.
Kathleen McLaughlin (right), president of the Walmart Foundation, and Marcy Dodderer, president and chief executive officer of the Arkansas Children's Hospital (at podium), get some help revealing an $8 million gift from the foundation to the hospital Monday.

SPRINGDALE — Wal-Mart and the Walmart Foundation announced an $8 million donation Monday to help pay for construction of an Arkansas Children's Hospital campus in west Springdale.

People gathered in the Sam’s Club Community Room at Arvest Ballpark for the announcement.

The estimated construction cost is about $167 million for construction, equipment and technology costs.

Arkansas Children’s Hospital Foundation, the fundraising arm for the hospital, has a goal to raise $70 million for the project, Montague has said.

Arkansas Children’s Hospital leaders in August announced plans to build a 24-bed, 225,000-square-foot hospital near Arvest Ballpark on land donated by Gary and Robin George and David and Cathy Evans.

The Springdale City Council approved rezoning the land for the hospital in February, and the Planning Commission approved the large scale development plan for the hospital the same month.

In 2014, Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock had about 49,000 outpatient visits from patients living in Washington and Benton counties, said Trisha Montague, the hospital's senior vice president of regional services. There were about 2,200 inpatient visits from patients living in those counties, 450 of whom were transported by helicopter.

Montague projected the new hospital in Springdale in its first year will have about 1,700 visits for inpatient care, about 30,000 emergency visits, about 30,000 clinic visits and about 2,800 visits for surgeries, most of which will be outpatient procedures.

The plan for the hospital shows a campus of about 36 acres on the northeast corner of the Watkins Avenue and South 56th Street intersection. Interstate 49 borders the property’s east side.

The location has good access to Interstate 49, Montague has said. She has also said the site is centrally located in Northwest Arkansas.

The building will have five floors with entry at ground level and no basement, according to Montague.

A small road would extend north from Watkins Avenue along the east side of the hospital building, while another small road would extend east from South 56th Street north of the building. The plan also shows ponds and a walking trail that would wind through the property. The majority of the parking lot space would be just north of the building.

Plans call for the building to have five operating rooms, 30 clinic rooms, 30 emergency department rooms, a helipad and refueling station and imaging and diagnostic services.

The most critical cases will still need to be transferred to Little Rock, and the Springdale site wouldn’t include a neonatal intensive care unit.

The hospital's clinic in Lowell now serves about 22,000 children per year, Montague said. The new hospital will have multiple services that aren’t offered at the clinic, like chemotherapy infusions and an MRI machine.

The hospital is set to open in January 2018, Montague said. Officials plan to move all of the clinic’s services to the new hospital at one time around the time of the opening.

Correction: A previous version of this story misnamed the Walmart Foundation. The error has been corrected.

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