Baptist Memorial, Crittenden County break ground on new hospital

WEST MEMPHIS, Ark., – Officials from Baptist Memorial Health Care and Crittenden County today broke ground on a new, $25 million hospital, Baptist Memorial Hospital-Crittenden County.

Baptist will be responsible for day-to-day hospital operations and will employ the facility’s staff. Crittenden County taxpayers voted in March to direct an existing one-cent, five-year sales tax to build the hospital. The facility will measure about 50,000 square feet and include an emergency room, cancer services, imaging and diagnostics and a number of other services and is expected to open in early-to-mid 2018.

“We’re excited to help bring health care back to Crittenden County,” said Brian Welton, CEO and administrator of Baptist Crittenden County. “During the next two years, we will partner with local officials, physicians and community members to help build a hospital this community can be proud of and rely on to provide high-quality care closer to home.”

One of the largest not-for-profit health care systems in the United States, Baptist Memorial offers a full continuum of care to communities throughout the Mid-South. The Baptist Memorial system, which consistently ranks among the top integrated health care networks in the nation, comprises 17 affiliate hospitals in the Mid-South; more than 3,000 affiliated physicians; Baptist Medical Group, a multispecialty physician group with more than 500 physicians; home, hospice and psychiatric care; a network of surgery, rehabilitation and other outpatient centers; and an education system highlighted by the Baptist College of Health Sciences. Baptist employs more than 14,000 health care professionals, has more than 2,300 licensed beds systemwide and has approximately 85,000 admissions annually. In October, Calhoun Health Services, a hospital and nursing home in Calhoun City, Miss., will become affiliated with Baptist Memorial and be known as Baptist Memorial Hospital – Calhoun and Baptist Nursing Home – Calhoun. Next year, Baptist Memorial will open a new, $300 million hospital in Oxford, Miss.