University of Arkansas For Medical Sciences - Campus Expansion

Campus Expansion

In 2004, UAMS embarked on the most significant expansion efforts in its history with a slate of projects to provide additional space for its education, patient care, research and outreach programs. The over $500 million expansion effort will encompass several expansion and renovation projects.

UAMS officials said the expansion effort also was necessary because many programs had outgrown their current facilities. In addition, the predicted increase in the number of persons aged 65 or older that could overburden a health care system that already faces shortages of health care professionals.

The largest project was a 553,282-square-foot (51,401.6 m2), $197 million expansion of the UAMS Medical Center, which includes new patient rooms, operating rooms and space for other programs and services. The hospital expansion is needed to replace the outdated original hospital building, which opened in 1956. The original hospital will undergo renovation in phases to host new academic and research facilities

The 10-floor new hospital expansion includes 234 adult beds and 60 neonatal beds initially, with space for growth that would bring the total capacity to 393 private adult patient rooms between the new facility and the hospital’s existing Ward Tower. The first 9 floors opened on January 19, 2009, with the 10th floor as shell space for future expansion. As of 2011, high hospital bed occupancy led to construction work on the 10th floor project being started earlier than expected, and is currently underway. The 10th floor build-out will add 60 adult inpatient beds to the hospital.

The hospital expansion was built at the site of the old student dormitory, which was imploded on Feb. 19, 2006. The dorm was replaced with a 92,000-square-foot (8,500 m2), 177-unit Residence Hall, which opened to students in August 2006.

The six-floor, 110,000-square-foot (10,000 m2) Psychiatric Research Institute facility, a 40-bed facility built adjacent to the hospital expansion, includes space for inpatient and outpatient treatment, education, research and administration. It opened in December 2008. A 1,000-car parking deck was built adjoining and underneath the hospital expansion and PRI.

On Sept. 28, 2007, UAMS honored the late Winthrop P. Rockefeller, former Arkansas lieutenant governor, by renaming its Arkansas Cancer Research Center (ACRC) for him while celebrating the groundbreaking for a major expansion to the facility. The 12-floor, $130 million, 330,000-square-foot (31,000 m2) addition, located just north of the existing 11 story 200,000-square-foot (19,000 m2) facility, will allow the institute to treat more patients and host more research into new treatments. The addition opened in July, 2010.

A five-floor, 56,000-square-foot (5,200 m2) addition to the Jones Eye Institute opened in April 2006. It is named the Pat Walker Tower for the Springdale philanthropist whose gift made the project possible.

In 2010, construction began on a four-floor, 55,000-square-foot (5,100 m2) addition to the Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging. The $30.4 million addition will be built on top of the existing four-story, 96,000-square-foot (8,900 m2) building established by a similar grant from the Donald W Reynolds Foundation in 2000.

An approximately 43,000-square-foot (4,000 m2) I. Dodd Wilson Education Building was completed in 2008, including 14 25-seat classrooms, two 40-seat classrooms and two 214-seat auditoriums.

UAMS assisted with the construction of a 148,000-square-foot (13,700 m2) new state hospital in return for the land where the new residence hall is located and most of the old state hospital buildings that transferred to UAMS when construction was completed in 2008. Those buildings have are in various stages of renovation to house programs for the College of Health Related Professions while longer term uses for the land and structures are studied.

A satellite campus in Northwest Arkansas has also opened for the 2009-2010 academic year in the former Washington Regional Medical Center hospital and is in its second year of use. The UAMS Northwest campus is being planned in order to further expand the UAMS student enrollment in medicine, pharmacy, nursing, and allied health and accommodate additional medical residents.

• University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences is at coordinates 34°44′58″N 92°19′12″W / 34.749467°N 92.319891°W / 34.749467; -92.319891 (University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences)Coordinates: 34°44′58″N 92°19′12″W / 34.749467°N 92.319891°W / 34.749467; -92.319891 (University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences)