Jefferson Regional Medical Center announced Thursday that it will be entering a joint venture with Kindred Healthcare, a Kentucky health care provider, in building and operating a 40-bed free-standing inpatient rehabilitation hospital that will also include an additional 36 behavioral health beds.
Brian Thomas, the hospital's president and CEO, said the new facility will address a demand that is not being met today in the region.
"The need for rehab services continues to grow, and our most recent community needs assessment indicated that there was a lack of mental and behavioral health resources in southeast Arkansas," Thomas said. "As a result, we are very enthusiastic about the opportunity to reach even more people through this joint venture. This will be a big help. These patients really need these two services."
The new facility will provide inpatient rehabilitation services for adults who have had a loss of function or disability associated with strokes, brain and spinal cord injuries, neurological disorders, orthopaedic surgeries and other conditions, officials said.
Featuring all private rooms, the rehabilitation section of the hospital will provide "intense, interdisciplinary rehabilitation therapies and medical care to improve patients' functional independence and help them return home," stated a press release.
The facility's behavioral unit also will treat adults and seniors with mental health and substance-use disorders that deal with alcohol and drugs, anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and other behavioral health problems.
Thomas said Jefferson Regional had limited bed capacity for rehab patients, a condition that provided motivation for finding a solution to the problem.
"We were landlocked with our inpatient rehab care in our current location," Thomas said. "It just became evident that a move such as this made a lot of sense for us."
The new facility will increase the number of beds Jefferson Regional has for rehab patients by 50% and double the beds now available for those who need psychiatric care, Thomas said.
Another move that made sense, Thomas said, was partnering with Kindred Healthcare, a well-known caregiver that has been managing the hospital's rehab unit for 28 years. The difference now, he said, is that Kindred will have a stake in the success of the joint venture.
"We are happy to have them at the table as a partner in this joint venture," Thomas said, adding that the two healthcare providers had been discussing the idea for about two years. "It just makes a lot of business sense. They have a wealth of experience in doing this."
Thomas said the joint venture between Jefferson Regional and Kindred will be a new entity that will contract with the hospital and with Kindred for the services it already handles. Jefferson Regional, Thomas said, will maintain the majority interest in the venture.
The new facility, Thomas said, is needed by patients in southeast Arkansas but also by those in other parts of the state.
"Emergency rooms are looking for psychiatric-care beds on any given day of the week," Thomas said. "I think there will be demand for these beds from our own region, but I also expect to get referrals from other parts of the state."
Jason Zachariah, president and CEO of Kindred Healthcare, said he was pleased to be partnering with Jefferson Regional.
"We have been privileged to be Jefferson Regional's rehabilitation partner for nearly three decades and are excited to partner with them in this new joint venture," he said. "Because of the tremendous work done over the years by the clinical staff of both organizations, we are able to continue to provide even greater access in Southeast Arkansas to much needed rehabilitation and behavioral health services."
Officials are looking to open the facility in 2023 but are not ready to announce where it will be located. Thomas declined to say how much the new facility will cost but said it would be "significant."
The facility, officials said, will be built through a real estate investment trust and then leased to Jefferson Regional and Kindred.