CHI St. Vincent, Cornerstone Hospital Finalizing Agreement for Long-Term Acute Care

CHI St. Vincent and Cornerstone Hospital of North Little Rock, operated by Cornerstone Healthcare Group of Dallas, Texas, are working out the final details of an agreement that will create 75 jobs and an expanded role for CHG at two CHI St. Vincent locations in central Arkansas.

The two health care entities are finalizing terms of a deal that will bolster the presence of CHG, a long-term acute care hospital, at CHI St. Vincent Infirmary in Little Rock and CHI St. Vincent North in Sherwood. 

“Once agreements are finalized, our transition process will include consulting physicians to ensure quality, safety, patient and physician satisfaction are achieved in the design and operation of all CHG facilities,” Mark Senko, chief business development officer for CHG, said in a news release.

The jobs created by the agreement will be for highly-qualified critical care and medical surgical registered nurses, as well as licensed vocational nurses. Additional medical staff, including pulmonologists and hospitalists, will be necessary to provide physician services.

CHG has plans to lease space for additional LTACH beds in the Little Rock area. It currently has 40 licensed beds at North Metro Medical Center in Jacksonville.

LTACHs are used to provide transition for patients between short-term acute care hospitals and post-acute care providers. They care to patients with chronic critical illness and other complex medical conditions that need hospital-level, acute care for extended periods of time.

CHI St. Vincent and CHG say the agreement will provide more than a 50 percent increase in coverage for patients likely to need long-term acute care.

“There is a clear need for expanded long-term acute care in our community today and that need, as the health care transforms itself, will increase even more in the years ahead,” Peter Banko, president and CEO at CHI St. Vincent, said in the release.