The Alice L. Walton Foundation and Mercy have broken ground on the 120-acre AWSOM Whole Health Campus in Bentonville.
Located two miles east of downtown Bentonville, the new campus is designed to serve as a regional centre for advanced health services, whole-person care and medical education.
According to Mercy, the project will feature Centre for Advanced Specialty Care, a 709,000ft² facility affiliated with the Cleveland Clinic that will initially focus on cardiac care. Services in orthopaedics, gastroenterology, and neurology are also planned.
The facility is scheduled to open in 2029 and will offer both in-person and virtual care to patients across the Heartland region.
Further expansion is planned, including more than 1.1 million square feet dedicated to cancer care and a hospital with more than 250 beds and 40 operating rooms.
In total, nearly three million sqaure feet of facilities are slated for the campus, Mercy stated.
Mercy president and CEO Steve Mackin said: “This is a defining moment for Northwest Arkansas and the Heartland. People deserve access to world-class speciality care close to home.
“Together with Alice and her team, we’re building something unique, bringing leading-edge care, innovation and whole-person health to the heart of America, while simultaneously addressing some of health care’s biggest problems.”
During the groundbreaking ceremony, the official name of the complex was announced as AWSOM Whole Health Campus, reflecting collaboration with the Alice L. Walton School of Medicine (AWSOM) and Heartland Whole Health Institute.
The campus will combine speciality care, physician education and community spaces to support physical, mental and social well-being.
Designed by CannonDesign, with EDSA overseeing landscape architecture and Nabholz managing construction, AWSOM Whole Health Campus is expected to establish itself as a destination for advanced care, education and community health in north-west Arkansas.
Alice L. Walton School of Medicine founding dean and CEO Dr Sharmila Makhija said: “Together with Mercy, our primary education partner, AWSOM brings its educational and clinical expertise to a campus designed to integrate learning, patient care and innovation.
“By training students in whole-person care and grounding them in whole-health principles, which are the foundation of value-based care, we are creating an environment where patient-centred care is not only taught, but practised every day."
The event also saw the announcement of a $50m joint pledge from the Tyson Family Foundation and Tyson Foods, boosting community support and financial resources for the scheme.
