Doctor Taps IRA, Sells Land to Rescue Pea Ridge Clinic

Pea Ridge Urgent Care owner Dr. Alan Schumacher has reached a new deal with his lender after falling far behind on the clinic’s mortgage. (Provided)

Dr. Alan Schumacher has gone all-in to keep his urgent care clinic in Pea Ridge fully staffed and open.

Pea Ridge Urgent Care Clinic Co. opened on April 1, 2024, but the patient volumes Schumacher projected didn’t appear, triggering cash shortfalls. He said he thought that by August 2025 the clinic would be treating between 40 and 45 patients a day. Instead, the number has been around 20.

Instead of laying off some of its 15 staffers, however, he “liquidated every bit of retirement I ever had,” he said. He went back to work in local ERs to boost his personal income to pay for salaries and lab supplies, Schumacher added.

Recently, he sold 35 acres of undeveloped land by the Big Sugar Golf Club to developer Franklin Miller of Benton County, Schumacher said.

The proceeds from the $750,000 sale will go to First Western Bank of Booneville for outstanding mortgage payments. In July, the bank had sued the clinic, alleging it defaulted on about $4 million worth of loans.

Pea Ridge Urgent Care’s attorney, Kevin Keech of Little Rock, told Arkansas Business that the clinic “has reached an agreement with First Western Bank.”

Miller also agreed to give Schumacher $150,000 in exchange for a second mortgage on other property that Schumacher owns, the doctor said.

Schumacher said the additional cash should keep the clinic afloat through next year. “This time next year, the business should be supporting itself.” The clinic treats everything from the common cold to broken bones.

To attract patients, it uses social media for advertising, and sponsors the Bentonville High School tennis team. It also advertises on material that the Pea Ridge Fire Department distributes to the city’s 10,000 residents.

Schumacher moved from Bentonville to Pea Ridge in 2018 and fell in love with the area. He then decided he wanted to open an urgent care clinic to “work here in the community with the people that I live with.”

He consulted the Arkansas Small Business & Technology Development Center at the University of Arkansas for business advice.

Construction on the clinic started around June 2023, near the end of the pandemic, and as supply chain issues caused prices to rise. “The costs became rampantly higher than they had initially been estimated,” Schumacher said.

The clinic’s projected startup cost was $2.5 million, but it ended up totaling about $3.8 million.

Even with building costs up and patient revenue down, Schumacher said he’s committed to the clinic. “It’s my baby; it’s my passion,” he said. “I have no more IRAs or retirement funds. I’ve got every earthly possession that I have on the line for this. And I just really want to see it succeed, for myself, personally, [and] for my employees.”