A ll of these additional square feet associated with new medical opportunities are a little mind-bending, but in a good way.
Just a few weeks ago, Jefferson Regional opened its new Jones-Dunklin Cancer Center. That facility is 23,000 square feet.
Then the hospital also cut the ribbon on a new OB-GYN center, which is another 13,000 square feet.
Both of the new or renovated spaces, located in the Jefferson Profession Center, put a clear emphasis on bringing together doctors, nurses, technicians and other medical professionals to make life easier and more accommodating for patients.
Then, last week, the Arkansas Children’s Hospital gave a walk through of it’s Pine Bluff clinic, which will open to patients soon. That facility is located on 42nd Avenue across the street from the hospital, and is 10,250 square feet.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
If you’re keeping up, that’s more than an acre devoted to medical care that Pine Bluff either didn’t have or didn’t have to this extent.
There is obviously more to creating an environment for quality health care than simply carving out space in the way of additional square feet. But when one knows the people and institutions behind those additions, it means something.
The cancer and OB-GYN areas are examples of Jefferson Regional staying ahead of the curve in offering quality health care to southeast Arkansas, in whatever form that is demanded. The people who run the hospital are your friends and neighbors.
For the Children’s Hospital’s Pine Bluff Clinic, that new facility is a partnership with Jefferson Regional. As Jefferson Regional’s CEO Brian Thomas put it, the idea of partnering with Children’s was an easy one to agree to, considering that Children’s is the best in the state at what it does, that being delivering health care to the young.
These additions come with a cost. Before the cancer center’s price tag will be $11 million, the OB-GYN renovation will cost $1.3 million and the new Pine Bluff Clinic for children will cost $17.5 million, with $10 million of that already raised.
Heavy hitting philanthropists carry a lot of the freight when it comes to developing and opening such institutions, but of course we should all consider what it means for our community to have such centers of excellence in our midst, with an eye toward contributing to the cause.
We hear people talking about places to live, and the presence or absence of adequate health care is high on the list of necessary attributes for a community.
As Pine Bluff pushes forward, it’s comforting and encouraging to note that such necessities can be put in the “done” column. It takes vision and commitment to make necessities like this happen. We are fortunate to have such visionaries and committed people in our midst.