A major renovation of the Eureka Springs Hospital cleared its first hurdle Monday night.
At its regular meeting, the Eureka Springs Hospital Commission quickly and unanimously approved putting together a Request for Proposals for engineering work on hospital renovations — the first step in a process aimed at updating all areas of the building that has been open since 1929.
“This is something we need,” commissioner Kent Turner told the Lovely County Citizen of renovating the hospital. “Our hospital works well, we run well, but the facilities are old.
“The staff does a very good job of keeping the hospital maintained and up to speed, but it’s just something we need.”
An architect has been working on drawings of a renovated facility for quite some time, Turner said. Once those plans are complete, hiring an engineering firm will be the next step.
“The next phase would be funding, and then probably simultaneous with funding, we would go out for bid for a contractor,” Turner said.
The commission, which has been discussing the project in-depth in workshops over the past few months, is also hoping the hospital could be in line for federal monies that could be available in 2023 to help fund the project.
“All areas of the hospital will be renovated,” said Turner, who added the commission feels a renovated facility will also help attract more employees.
“We have a particular problem in this area of hiring people … We have a hard time attracting people into the area,” Turner said. “A newer facility will help us do that. We really believe that. Not to mention the fact it will serve our public better, serve our residents better.”
The commission also approved going to the Eureka Springs Historic District Commission for approval of “deconstructing the purple house” on the hospital grounds.
Removing the house, which is currently not being used, will be necessary for the renovations to proceed, Turner said.
“We understand that’s a historic building,” he said. “But, sometimes in order to protect the health and welfare of the community, you have to do things that you don’t particularly want to do.”
Turner said the plans, if approved by the HDC, are to take the building apart in such a way that it could be reconstructed elsewhere. The facility most recently housed a thrift store.
In other reports at the meeting,Angie Shaw, hospital CEO, said there were 278 COVID-19 tests administered in July with 54 being positive.
“So far inAugust, we’re at 114 tests with 21 positives,” she said. “So, right now we’re sitting at an 18 percent [positivity] rate. We have seen a decrease in testing over this past week, so hopefully that is an indicator that COVID is calming down again.”
Shaw also reported that the hospital’s emergency room has had a busy year.
“Year to date … we’ve had 1,979 visits so far,” she said. “That is a 12 percent increase compared to the same reporting period in 2021. And I look pre-COVID, and we are actually up 20 percent from 2019.”
