Washington Regional Medical Center CEO Larry Shackelford is happy to be celebrating the health system’s 75th anniversary, and he’s hoping to lay the foundation for the next 75 years of success in a much more challenging environment.
Shackelford tells the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal the growth of the campus and its services has been remarkable.
“Back in 1950 we did open and it was Washington County General Hospital when it opened in the 1950’s. We had 50 beds. We have seen tremendous growth over that 75-year period growing from a small local hospital to the regional healthcare hub of today. Washington Regional has around 425 beds and we have been recognized as a regional leader in many areas of healthcare,” he said.
Shackelford attributes the move from North College Avenue to its present location on North Gregg Avenue as a transformative step, and additional moves are in the planning process.
“The moves that our board did in the late 1980’s to become a private nonprofit working with the county, the decision to leave the old North College location, which was safe and it served people for many years, to come to North Hills was a really huge step,” said Shackelford. “Since that time, we’ve doubled our campus from originally around 350,000 square feet to over 750,000 square feet now, and that means our campus currently is getting full.”
Shackelford said the next phase of development for Washington Regional is just a stone’s throw around the corner.
“We have been working with the Drake Farms development. We’ve purchased 30 acres there. We think that will grow over time,” he said.
Hospital services are changing as technology advances and the opportunities to manage patients more efficiently and with more quality improves. While acute, in-hospital care will always be a priority, Shackelford sees more outpatient services developing.
“Think about what things you used to have to be in the hospital a long time for that can now be done in outpatient. That’s changed in the last five to 10 years. We think that’s going to continue to change moving forward,” he said. “We think that campus will give us the ability to make our main hospital as highly acute as it can be and to really focus on those outpatient things at Drake Farms moving forward.”
Shackelford also said he’s keeping a close eye on policy changes from Washington, D.C. The Republican-controlled Congress has made major changes to Medicaid, which will affect the health care industry by billions of dollars. Locally, the impact will have multi-million dollar impacts.
“Some of the changes that have come out of Washington lately are big changes. I think fortunately, some of what could have been really impactful if the FMAP formula or some of the provider tax funding had been impacted, that would’ve been devastating,” he said. “I think the unknown is when you do re-enrollment more frequently, when you add work requirements – what’s the default if patients do not complete the paperwork timely, if they don’t complete it accurately, do they lose coverage?”
Shackelford said his hospital system is going to be the front line of awareness for patients who may lose their health care coverage and he knows that hospitals will have to absorb the cost of uncompensated care.
“They will still come to ERs like Washington Regional to seek care and they often don’t know that they don’t have coverage until they’re there. I think that’s going to be something we’re going to have to really keep our eye on is helping patients that have resources that qualify for Medicaid or expansion, being sure they can keep those,” he said.
You can watch Shackelford’s full interview in the video below.