Mercy plans a groundbreaking Thursday in the construction of a new 14,000-SF primary care clinic in southwest Bentonville.
Last week, Mercy Northwest Arkansas broke ground on a 14,000-SF primary care clinic in southwest Bentonville, part of the health system’s $247 million expansion project.
This phase of the construction work includes adding seven clinics to its total of 34, according to a spokeswoman.
In March, it began building a 7,400-SF clinic in Pea Ridge. That project costs $4.1 million and is expected to be completed in August. Other clinics will be in Bentonville, Rogers and Springdale.
“We researched and identified the needs of the community, so that geographically we are much closer to our patients in order to meet their health care needs,” Dr. Steve Goss, president of Mercy Clinic, said in a statement to Arkansas Business.
The Mercy Clinic Primary Care-Southwest I Street in Bentonville will have six providers and feature 29 examination rooms. The building could be expanded to add 14 exam rooms, if needed. Specialty providers also will see patients at the clinic on a rotating basis.
Crossland Construction Co. of Columbus, Kansas, is expected to start construction this month and complete the building by early next year.
Mercy’s cost for the project is $7.7 million, which includes the land and construction. The architect is Core Architects Inc. of Rogers.
In April 2016, Mercy announced a five-year, $247 million expansion project. The centerpiece is a 190,000-SF patient tower at its Rogers hospital campus that will add more than 100 beds. The opening of the hospital tower is planned for 2019.
Home Care Firm Grows
In the winter of 2013, Philip Schmidt said, some of his relatives required a nonmedical home service but he couldn’t find “good, dependable, quality care.”
So, after quizzing doctors and friends, he started his own service.
His company, Homeality of Little Rock, opened in April 2014 and offers services such as companionship, light housekeeping, shopping, cooking and medication reminders. Employees can’t administer drugs but can be in the client’s house 24 hours a day.
“We help people go about the daily, basic needs of living,” he said.
The business has taken off, Schmidt said. Revenue in the first year was close to $1 million and has “grown steadily,” he said.
Homeality has gotten most of his clients through word of mouth, and most of the company’s 60-70 clients are in the Little Rock area. He said the number fluctuates.
Schmidt said that over the next couple of years he hopes to have locations in Fayetteville and Jonesboro.
Schmidt wouldn’t give a price range for the services, saying, “They vary based on the level of care, the amount of care.”
He said that while some home personal care businesses take Medicaid and Medicare patients, Homeality only takes clients who can pay with private funds.
“I just wanted to concentrate on being a very quality-based, private-pay organization and just didn’t want to get into having a larger office staff, processing reimbursement paperwork,” he said.
Aaron Marcum, the founder and CEO of Home Care Pulse of Rexburg, Idaho, which offers management services for the home care industry, isn’t surprised by Homeality’s growth.
Between 2012 and 2016, he said, the number of nonmedical home care businesses has jumped nearly 50 percent to more than 25,000 providers in the country. The industry generates about $40 billion annually.
“People want to stay independent in their homes, and private duty nonmedical is a key to helping them do that,” Marcum said.
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