Baptist-Crittenden CEO ‘excited’ as new hospital opening nears

Baptist-Crittenden CEO ‘excited’ as new hospital opening nears

Ribbon-cutting ceremony expected in November

news@theeveningtimes.com

Brian Welton was a little bit overwhelmed at first, but excited when he was tasked with overseeing construction on the new $45 million, 65,000-square-foot Baptist Memorial-Crittenden Hospital. But thanks to a great leadership team at Baptist, excellent construction manager, and involved local leadership, the project has not only come in on budget, but is a month ahead of schedule.

“There was some of that at the beginning,” said Welton, Baptist-Crittenden Administrator and CEO. “But it has been exciting to see how this has progressed.

Overall, it has gone really well. Everyone on the Baptist side is very pleased and excited about this hospital and the community engagement around the hospital.

Everybody is super excited.”

Baptist will officially get the keys to the building this week and begin moving staff in and setting up offices as well. The hospital has been in hiring mode and already has several management positions filled. Eventually, when they start seeing patients on Dec. 3, the hospital will have about 110 employees.

“We’ve made a number of offers to people and are continuing to make offers as we go,” Welton said.

“Our administrative team members will start being out there probably this week. We’re starting to move in equipment. All of our waiting room furniture and office furniture and shelving is in. So our offices will be there and we will start operating out of there. We’ll start bringing on more and more team members as we get closer to November and December. But definitely over the next few weeks as we get everything set up you will see more and more people there.”

Welton said the project has been a real learning experience for him as well as Baptist. He can tell you all you need to know about gumbo soil and liquefaction ratios and lots of other construction terms that he has had to learn during the building process.

Baptist Memorial-Crittenden is the first brand new ground up hospital facility that Baptist has built in about 20 years.

“As large as we are, most hospitals Baptist has built have been add-ons where we have just moved people there. So it was relatively new for a lot of our team here at Baptist.”

Welton credits the staff at Baptist, Flintco who oversaw the project, and Judge Woody Wheeless for being such great partners throughout the process.

“We’ve managed it to budget, and everybody from Flintco to the architects to Judge Wheeless have felt a great responsibility to properly manage the public funds that have gone in to the project,” Welton said. “There couldn’t have been a better relationship. Flintco and Judge Wheeless have been fantastic to work with. You’re not going to find a better advocate for Crittenden County and this project than he is.

And I hope we have done our best to live up to this expectation and that of the community.”

Welton said while it has been exciting to watch the construction, he and his staff are ready to get in and get down to business.

“It’s starting to hit home,” Welton said. “If you’ve ever built a house it’s fun to pick out all of the finishes.

But we are ready to get in there and start doing what we are best at — taking care of patient. I’m ready to get in there and start taking care of people. As soon as we open our doors we are going to be busy.”

Baptist will hold a ribbon cutting ceremony in early November.

By Mark Randall