JEREMY PEPPAS

With golden shovels and some pomp and circumstance, St. Vincent broke ground on its $47 million expansion and renovation project in front of a crowd of about 100 in late March.

The project is being paid for by a combination of bonds and private donations, with the donations accounting for $10 million of the project. Also included is a $2 million anonymous gift to the hospital for the construction.

The expansion to St. Vincent is one part of the ongoing revitalization of Midtown Little Rock. The hospital takes up one of the four corners, while malls and retail shopping occupy the other three.

The completion date of the hospital expansion and renovation depends on what part of the project you are asking about.

"We are using a phased-in approach," said Ken Haynes, who presided over the ceremony and serves the hospital as COO. "We'll finish up one part and that will open up other space and keep going until it is done."

The project includes a new emergency department and it is scheduled to open in June 2008, while the rest will open the following year, in June 2009.

Of the $47 million, $10 million is committed to the new emergency department.
One key component of the project is the move of labor and delivery away from Doctors Hospital and to the main campus.

"It will let out ob/gyns to the have the subspecialty backup from the main tertiary campus and that will be better for patient care in the long run," Haynes pointed out.

All the new rooms will be private "since we are moving towards an all-private campus," said Haynes. The new rooms will be for labor and delivery, NICU and postpartum.

The dollar value of the project is large, but for comparison's sake, the amount of money involved is not much more than what the University of Alabama is paying Nick Saban to coach its football team. Still, though, the project is one of the largest St. Vincent has undertaken since moving to its current location and is part of the trends in healthcare construction in Arkansas and around the country. The state has around half a billion dollars committed to healthcare construction projects.

Leaders at Catholic Health Initiatives, the parent company of St. Vincent, "are very committed to redoing a lot of its facilities across the country," Haynes said. "They are going to spend over $1 billion in capital infrastructure."
The reasoning is fairly simple; the buildings need to be replaced.

"So many of these structures were built in the '50s and '60s," Haynes said. "So they are tired and need to be upgraded. And that's the case with use; it is time for an upgrade, but also for growth. We just need more space."

Haynes added that St. Vincent's expansion and growth would also mean that the hospital's staff will increase. "I would estimate maybe a 100 new employees over time," he said.

In other news, St. Vincent announced that the Office and Professional
Employees International Union would continue to represent registered nurses at St. Vincent. A majority of the RNs voted for continued union representation during elections held in late April.Of the 829 nurses eligible to vote, roughly two-thirds or 558 ballots were cast and 334 voted for the union and 228 voted against.The election is a result of the National Labor Relations Board decision to hold an election to determine if the union would continue to represent registered nurses at St. Vincent.

The move to a union began in May 2002 and has been ongoing ever since."This election gave nurses the opportunity they were seeking to be heard on issues of representation," said Peter Banko, the new president and CEO of St. Vincent Health System. "We are pleased that there was such a turnout to vote and the nurses' voices have been heard. We remain firmly committed to working collaboratively with OPEIU representatives to ensure that the best interests of our patients, community, physicians, and entire staff are reflected in the work ahead."


May 2007