History is repeating itself for St. Vincent Infirmary Medical Center.
On Jan. 26, St. Vincent Health System hospital president and CEO Peter Banko announced the purchase of a 37-acre site in west Little Rock for St. Vincent-West adjacent to The Promenade at Chenal, a retail shopping area on Chenal Parkway.
Standing on a small stage set up in the retail center’s parking lot, Banko and several dignitaries, including Msgr. Royce Thomas, addressed a crowd of about 50 people, with the property visible behind the stage. A sign announcing the new facility was unveiled after the announcement. Groundbreaking is set for May.
Banko said it was the largest purchase by St. Vincent in more than 50 years.
The hospital agreed to buy the land from Deltic Timber in two sections. The first, a 17.8-acre parcel, cost $4 million. The second section of 19 acres has a July 2011 closing date, according to a press release.
Banko likened it to the 1954 purchase of 40 acres on Hayes Street, which is now University Avenue, for the present St. Vincent Infirmary Medical Center. At that time there was very little in the area.
“Like the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth with the movement of St. Vincent Infirmary from downtown to midtown in 1954, we also view St. Vincent-West as a grand opportunity to put significant investment into a growing part of our community and spark even further economic development in Chenal and west Little Rock,” Banko said.
“St. Vincent envisions development of a health care and wellness destination that has the look and feel of today’s ’retail lifestyle centers.’ St. Vincent-West will offer outpatient, ambulatory and retail health care services that meet today’s needs of the immediate west Little Rock community as well as provide distinct specialty services for the growing west Little Rock population,” Banko said.
The hospital saw a need for such a facility in this part of the city. Currently, people living in west Little Rock have to drive 20 to 30 minutes for medical care, and there are few doctors and few outpatient services available west of Interstate 430, he added.
Banko said St. Vincent-West is a new model of care developed for current health care needs based on consumer research on medical and wellness models and current gaps in health care needs in west Little Rock.
The first phases will include doctors’ offices, an urgent care center, pharmacy, ambulatory surgery and diagnostic imaging, he said.
According to the press release, “The first phase also contemplates a sports medicine and sports performance center with state-of-the-art indoor sports facilities for soccer, football, basketball and other sports integrated with orthopedic care and rehabilitative therapy services. These are just the initial developments for St. Vincent-West of what will ultimately be a truly comprehensive health and wellness destination.”
St. Vincent was started as “The Charity Hospital” in 1888, according to the hospital’s Web site.
“Mother General Cleophas, leader of the religious community, with five Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, Kentucky, arrived at the Little Rock train station on the slow moving Iron Mountain Railroad. Sisters Mary James, Cornelia, Mechtildes, Mary Sebastian, and Hortense were invited to Little Rock by the Most Rev. Edward Fitzgerald, bishop of the Little Rock Diocese.”
The 10-bed hospital was located on East Second Street. The hospital’s name was changed from Little Rock Infirmary to St. Vincent Infirmary in honor of St. Vincent de Paul, the French priest who cared for the sick and the poor.
The Diocese of Little Rock gave ownership of the hospital to the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth.
In December 1954, the sisters opened the current nine-story hospital, which had 312 beds and has recently been expanded. In 1997 the hospital was bought by Catholic Health Initiatives in Denver.
Other St. Vincent hospitals include St. Vincent Medical Center North in Sherwood, St. Vincent Doctors in Little Rock and St. Anthony Medical Center in Morrilton, as well as family clinics in Little Rock and Jacksonville.
