Washington Regional Breaks Ground on Fayetteville's First Hospice Home
10/18/2010 At a ceremonial groundbreaking this morning, Washington Regional Hospice moved another step closer to opening Fayetteville’s first in-patient hospice facility. With a lead gift of $2 million from the Willard and Pat Walker Charitable Foundation, construction has begun on the 12-bed facility at 325 E. Longview Street near Washington Regional Medical Center.
The Willard Walker Hospice Home, expected to open in late 2011, will encompass 24,500 square feet in a plan that offers a tranquil, homelike setting with outdoor living areas and natural lighting. Patient rooms have been designed as two-room family suites, each with access to a terrace or patio.
“This is an important day for all of us,” says Bill Bradley, Washington Regional president and chief executive officer. “I want to thank the Walker Family for their $2 million lead gift to jumpstart our project as well as all of our donors who are making this dream a reality.”
A campaign to raise funds for the nearly $5 million project has secured a total of $2.5 million to date. Naming opportunities are available for patient rooms and other areas throughout the facility.
The hospice home will offer a chapel, children and family rooms, conference room, lobby, nurses station, sun porches and work areas. The home’s design and construction will allow the future addition of 12 more suites.
Washington Regional Hospice, the oldest hospice program in the state, has provided in-home end-of-life care since the early 1980s. It is the only local program of its kind that is accredited by the Joint Commission, and the only hospice in Northwest Arkansas that is affiliated with a locally governed, community-owned, not-for-profit medical system.
“The Willard Walker Hospice Home will serve as a most appropriate setting for patients needing end-of-life care when they can no longer be comfortably served in their homes,” says Dr. Stan Bradley, medical director for Washington Regional Hospice.
Designed by Crafton, Tull, Sparks Architects in Rogers, the facility will be built by C.R. Crawford Contractors.
