A flyover rendering of the completed Drew Memorial Hospital in Monticello – all new facilities have the darker gray roof as compared to the original building.
Drew Memorial Hospital in Monticello hopes to begin its $31 million expansion project in August.
Bids for the project, which includes the construction of a surgery center and labor, delivery and recovery area, are due July 12, said Drew Memorial CEO Scott Barrilleaux. It might take a few weeks to review the bids before a contract is awarded, he said.
“We’d like to see concrete poured before the rainy season sets in,” Barrilleaux said. The work could be done in 18-24 months.
The project will add 53,000 SF to the 120,000-SF hospital. Barrilleaux said the expansion was necessary to grow the 49-bed hospital.
The surgery center hasn’t been upgraded or expanded since the one-floor hospital was built in 1975. “Back then it was more inpatient-focused than what we have today,” Barrilleaux said. “So it doesn’t really meet the current delivery system that we have.”
The surgery center will have six operating rooms. Two rooms will be for cesarean sections, and the remaining four rooms will be used for general surgeries, such as orthopedic and urology procedures.
Barrilleaux said the center will allow the hospital to attract more surgeons.
And the surgery center was designed so patients could get in and out of the area faster. “The new square footage is going to address the lack of convenience and flexibility that we have with the current setup,” he said.
Part of the renovation project calls for adding entrances to the hospital.
The labor, delivery and recovery area addition will feature larger patient rooms than the hospital currently has. “We feel like we’re going to be the birthing center of choice for southeast Arkansas,” Barrilleaux said.
About 40 babies a month are delivered at the hospital. Barrilleaux said he hopes that after the expansion, Drew Memorial will see 50-60 babies born each month. “We anticipate this being a very successful project for us,” he said.
The architect was the Estopinal Group LLC, which is now known as TEG Architects, of Louisville, Kentucky.
The project is funded with $4 million in tax revenue that was previously collected for the surgery center, revenue of just under $10 million from a quarter-percent tax Drew County voters approved in December, a loan of approximately $14 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and money from the hospital.
Trying to Be ‘Scientific’
When Barrilleaux arrived at Drew Memorial in May 2014, the hospital planned to build a surgery center and a 20-bed behavioral health unit for geriatric psychiatry patients.
He said he decided to put the expansion plan on hold and study the project first to determine what “made the most sense for us.”
The study, conducted by the Estopinal Group, showed that the labor and delivery area was a better option for the hospital. The behavioral health plan then was shelved. “We tried to be a little scientific about how we moved forward with our project,” Barrilleaux said.
Since he arrived, the hospital has seen its patient volume and net revenue increase. “We’re seeing more demand for our services,” he said.
Some of the growth might be tied to adding services to the hospital and “us out-competing folks,” he said.
He also said more patients have insurance. Before the federal health care reforms in 2014, the uninsured rate at the hospital was 8 percent, Barrilleaux said. Now it’s half that.
For the fiscal year that ended in March, it had net income of approximately $2.4 million and net patient revenue of about $32 million, he said. Barrilleaux told Arkansas Business in July 2015 that the hospital had a loss of $641,000 for the fiscal year that ended in March 2014 and a profit of $459,000 a year later.
Sign up for Daily E-news
