The look of downtown Jonesboro is changing. A $130 million renovation of St. Bernards is underway. The work is being done in four phases and is expected to be complete by 2019.
Construction is taking place on the Ben E. Owens Cancer Treatment Center and it should be finished this fall.
Initial work on phase two is also underway, which includes adding new catheterization labs, hybrid labs and additional invasive services to the Heartcare Center. That will be complete in the winter of 2017.
Phase three will give St. Bernards a new “front door” on Jackson that will allow for easier access for emergency vehicles from Church Street. Phase three will include a five-story surgical and intensive care tower. That will open in 2018.
The final phase will be renovations within the present medical center. To prepare for some of the work to allow easier access onto to the campus from Church Street, some well-known buildings in Jonesboro are to be demolished this month. Kevin Hodges is Vice President of Affiliated and Senior Services at St. Bernards.
“On the west side of our campus, we were able to acquire the property where the old Blessed Sacrament school is located. In the next couple of weeks, we will be demolishing the former school and the auditorium. We will construct the Phase 3 projects, such as the helipad, with this. It will also start the process of allowing us to make an entry way for emergency vehicles coming from Church Street. We have acquired the church property, but we will not tear down the Blessed Sacrament Church. The tearing down of the church will be handled separately, but not through St. Bernards. Once the church is torn down, the entire block will consist of our campus.”
Hodges says St. Bernards has a firm that will demolish the Blessed Sacrament Parish Hall and the former school, and it has acquired the Blessed Sacrament Church property. The tearing down of the church is being handled separately and not through St. Bernards. He explains.
“Several years ago, the church and school decided that it would relocate to property on Highland Drive. They made the decision to go ahead and relocate. They will be moving according to their time schedule and they will be taking things they want from their church. When they get those things from the church, we will demolish the church. I imagine it will be at least a year before activity happens there.”
Hodges says this will help the public have easier access to St. Bernards by occupying the entire block.
“As you are coming up Church Street to the north, it will have a new look. It has been at least 50 years since this look and the goal is to make the entire block a campus that you can identify with and that you can easily find what you are looking for.
Kevin Hodges. More details on the renovation and expansion of St. Bernards can be found by looking at this press release listed below:
St. Bernards President and Chief Executive Officer Chris B. Barber has announced that the Medical Center is moving forward on a $130 million master plan that will change the face of downtown Jonesboro.
To be done in four phases, the plan calls for construction that will give St. Bernards a new “front door” on Jackson Avenue and will involve changes and additions to the medical center’s Ben E. Owens Cancer Treatment Center and the Heartcare Center; construction of a new surgical and intensive care tower and a new emergency department configuration with access from Church Street; and renovation and refurbishing of the present medical center structure, including patient rooms.
Work already has begun on the initial phase – that of the cancer center.
When completed, it will bring all components of the St. Bernards cancer service line together in a single facility on the main campus while providing space for future growth. Both radiation oncologists (Drs. John Lynch and John Allgood) and medical oncology/hematology specialists (Drs. Mazen Khalil, Marc Montè and Aamer Farooq) will have offices and clinic space in the same building.
The exterior of the ground level will have a new look, and a covered patient drop off will be added on Jackson Avenue. Interior space will be reconfigured to create an atrium, improve work flow and enhanced patient experience and to allow ample space for continued growth as St. Bernards meets needs within the region.
Square footage will be added to the top level where the medical oncology/hematology clinic and a 27-chair outpatient infusion area will be located. The center also will include a laboratory for blood testing and a chemotherapy pharmacy which will prepare all physician-ordered antineoplastic drugs on site.
Patients currently being treated at the cancer center will not be able to access the building from Jackson. Rather, they will enter from the ground level in the parking garage.
Phase 1 work is anticipated to take approximately 11 months, with all facets of the cancer treatment center fully functional by October of 2016. Total cost of Phase 1 work will be approximately $9 million.
Phase 2 will include changes at the Heartcare Center that will allow for expansion of invasive services, the addition of both a new electrophysiology lab and a new hybrid lab and renovation of current cardiac catheterization labs.
The first floor of the Heartcare Center will be used for non-invasive cardiac procedures. The second level will house all invasive services, with construction bringing to six the total number of cath and EP labs. The third level – now simply shelled in – will be developed as a 30-unit patient prep and recovery area and a separate family waiting area.
Projected start date is spring of 2016, with completion expected in the winter of 2017. Approximate cost of Phase 2 is expected to be $8 million.
Phase 3 will involve construction that gives St. Bernards a new “front door” and changes the face of downtown Jonesboro. It will include a five-story surgical and intensive care tower that faces Jackson Avenue and new entrances for emergency services with access from Church Street.
The 245,000-square-foot tower will feature entrance into an atrium on the ground level with access to admissions and registration and visitor-friendly amenities such as a coffee shop, education rooms, a chapel, improved wayfinding for families and visitors and support services for surgery and critical care areas.
The first level of the tower will house 14 surgical suites, along with support programs such as pharmacy and the GI Lab.
The second level will house a 40-bed critical care unit.
The third level will be shelled in to allow for future growth and expansion, while the top level will be a mechanical area.
Emergency services will be accessed from Church Street and will have separate entrances for ambulance and ambulatory patients. There will be seven bays for private ambulance service, separate parking for emergency vehicles (such as law enforcement, etc.) and a covered entrance for patients who arrive via private vehicle. That area will include ample private parking for community emergency needs.
A helipad will be built atop the ambulance bay, giving St. Bernards two helicopter landing sites. The present helipad will be used primarily for Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and women’s and children’s services patients, while the one at the emergency department will be used mostly for emergency and surgical services.
Total cost of the tower/emergency services project is expected to be about $75 million. Work on Phase 3 will begin with site prep after St. Bernards has access to the Blessed Sacrament school property in the fall of 2016. Work on the tower itself is expected to begin in 2017,with completion in the winter of 2018/19.
The final phase will include renovations within the present medical center, including enhancements of patient rooms, public areas and kitchen and dining areas.
The overall project has been developed in conjunction with HKS, Inc., an architectural firm in Dallas that has designed comprehensive healthcare projects throughout the world.
Nabholz Construction, with a presence in Jonesboro, will serve as contractor.
St. Bernards Medical Center is a 438-bed acute care hospital that serves as a regional referral center for 23 counties in Northeast Arkansas and Southeast Missouri, seeing the sickest of the sick patients in the area. It is the only Level III Trauma Center in the region and has the only Neonatal Intensive Care Unit in Eastern Arkansas. It was the only medical center in Arkansas to be recognized by the American Heart Association as a 2015 Mission: Lifeline® Receiving Center GOLD PLUS Level facility.
St. Bernards was established in 1900 by the Olivetan Benedictine sisters of Holy Angels Convent to meet needs of residents during a malarial fever epidemic. The hospital – located in a two-story frame building on East Matthews – took its first patients on July 5, 1900, and has served as this area’s trusted provider of comprehensive, compassionate healthcare for more than a century.
St. Bernards Healthcare is the largest employer in Craighead County with approximately 3,000 employees.
