TEXARKANA – The medical care business is booming in Texarkana.
Wadley Regional Medical Center broke ground for its new $227 million hospital facility at West Park Boulevard in September of 2021, while CHRISTUS St. Michael announced it is building a second hospital and will break ground on the $50 million project early this year. In addition, Arkansas Heart Hospital recently broke the news that it will soon be bringing its cardiology care to Texarkana.
With this sudden boom of hospital and care facilities, it raises the question: What does this mean for the Texarkana region?
"I think the proliferation of additional hospitals just emphasizes how important the Texarkana mediate area is to the healthcare of, not only Texarkana, but also Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas," said Mike Malone, President/CEO of the Texarkana Chamber of Commerce. "Texarkana traditionally has been a hub for healthcare. I think the growth of the hospitals is just a natural result of the travel patterns and the relationships between the communities in this region."
Rob Sitterley, President & CEO at AR-TX Regional Economic Development Inc., said Texarkana benefits from this just as much as the medical care facilities do by expanding here.
"With all of the recent announcements and the planned millions of dollars of capital investment, the Texarkana region wins," he said.
Local businesses greatly benefit from the influx of people visiting one of our medical facilities, he added.
"Those that travel to Texarkana for a medical consultation, check-up or procedure will typically do some shopping, eat at a restaurant, buy gasoline or make some other purchase before heading home," he said. "With the medical service industry that exists and continues to thrive in Texarkana, our area is blessed to have such a wonderful economic development driver."
While the medical care, economic development and potential jobs created from these facilities are all positives for the community, local officials also spoke on the projected location of these hospitals.
Wadley's new hospital will be at the intersection of West Park Boulevard and University Avenue behind Lafferty's Home Center, CHRISTUS St. Michael's Hospital-West will be located at the intersection of Gibson Lane and Arista Boulevard and Arkansas Heart Hospital will open its first out-of-state facility at 3930 Galleria Oaks Dr. in Texarkana, Texas.
All three locations are in Northwest Texarkana.
Jay Ellington, city manager for Texarkana, Arkansas, said he is not concerned about the availability of medical care in South Texarkana.
"It matters a little bit in the region, but again, business is going to go where they're most comfortable," Ellington said. "And as long as they're serving all of us, it doesn't really make any difference where they're located.
"Yes, we have some space on the southeast and east side of Texarkana, Arkansas. We're going to be working on updating our comprehensive plan and trying to determine how all of these areas get planned for development into the future. As we do that, hopefully we will attract some folks from the commercial side ventures onto our side, as well."
Malone backed this sentiment.
"I think closeness to medical care is sometimes a relevant issue, but it's relative," he said. "To drive from downtown Texarkana to CHRISTUS or the new Wadley Hospital is not very far at all. These facilities sort of cluster, like your fast food operations. Many of them, you don't see just standing by themselves. Several are clustered together. And many other services do the same thing."
He said as the south side of Texarkana develops around the highway, the potential for medical care facilities will grow, as well.
"We all acknowledge that the big growth spurt out there off of Richmond and the I-30 corridor, it was I-30 that drove a lot of the growth in that direction," Malone said. "As we work on long-range plans of highway development and coming in from I-69 up to 369, and as that new highway begins to mature here in the next 15 to 20 years, you're going to see additional growth like we saw in Richmond in that corridor.
"It's just time as things grow. The healthcare is going where the major populations are and the major traffic flow patterns that occur. It will grow as it moves around the city. The city is growing outward, and it's going to continue to grow."
Ellington said as long as the medical care facilities in Texarkana are serving everyone in the community, no matter the location, then this region will continue to be a successful health hub.
"We are a health hub for Southwest Arkansas, East Texas and Southeast Oklahoma, so this is a good sign that we are continuing that role for our region here," he said. "It really doesn't make any difference which side of the line these properties are owned. Our health community serves everybody in this region, and our economy serves everybody in the region."
This artist's rendering shows the planned new Wadley Regional Medical Center Hospital to be built in Texarkana, Texas.
Arkansas Heart Hospital will open its first out-of-state cardio care center at 3930 Galleria Oaks Dr. in Texarkana in about a month. (Rendering courtesy of Arkansas Heart Hospital)