‘A Big Hole in Southwest Arkansas’: Providers and Police Say Funding Falls Short
Health providers and law enforcement in Southwest Arkansas told lawmakers they need more funding to keep hospitals open and expand mental health services.
Southwest Arkansas, sparsely populated and dotted with small towns separated by long stretches of pine forest, offers natural beauty and popular tourist destinations. Yet it has long been overlooked in terms of development. The region, where former President Bill Clinton was born, still lacks sufficient health care infrastructure. The local hospital, Hope Hospital, serves as the only medical facility for multiple counties in the area.
On Thursday, September 11, health care providers and law enforcement officers in Hempstead County told Arkansas lawmakers that additional funding is urgently needed to address the region’s mental and physical health care challenges.
The Sole Hospital Seeks Survival
Last year, hope returned when Pafford Health Systems, a locally owned ambulance service operating in 23 Arkansas counties and parts of three neighboring states, acquired the local hospital after its previous corporate owner filed for bankruptcy. Formerly known as Wadley Regional Medical Center, the facility was renamed Southwest Arkansas Regional Medical Center under new management. It continues to serve Hempstead County as well as Lafayette, Nevada, and the southern part of Pike counties, areas without any other hospitals. Despite the ownership change, the hospital now faces significant financial challenges.
“If financial strain closed the hospital, it would leave a big hole in Southwest Arkansas,” said Shelby Brown, the hospital’s Chief Administrative Officer. “Right now, we have more money going out than we have money coming in,” she told the Joint Public Health, Welfare and Labor Committee during its Thursday morning meeting at the hospital.
To strengthen its finances, Southwest Arkansas Regional has applied for critical access hospital status. This federal designation, overseen by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, applies to facilities located more than 35 miles from other hospitals and limited to 25 beds. If approved, the hospital would reduce inpatient capacity from 48 to 25 beds and limit intensive care stays to an average of 96 hours. Administrators also considered applying for rural emergency hospital status, which provides additional federal support to facilities that reduce or eliminate inpatient services and focus on emergency and outpatient care.
Southwest Arkansas Regional is also in the process of becoming a nonprofit. Brown said this move would help repay the Pafford family for the money already invested and make the hospital eligible for the federal 340B drug pricing program, which provides discounts on prescription medications.
Brown and Republican Representative Dolly Henley, who represents Hope and serves on the House Public Health Committee, said they have requested that Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders and her staff visit the hospital to help identify financial solutions. So far, Sanders has not made a visit, they said.
After Thursday’s committee meeting, Brown and Pafford staff led lawmakers on a tour of the facility, including the intensive care unit.
Governor Responds with Big Beautiful Bill
In a statement Thursday evening, Governor Sanders’ spokesperson Sam Dubke said that rural hospitals nationwide will receive $50 billion through the Rural Hospital Transformation Fund, established under President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill.” Dubke noted that Sanders is working closely with federal partners to secure resources for Arkansas’ rural hospitals, including Hope Hospital.
Between 2022 and 2024, the Arkansas Legislature allocated nearly $60 million in federal pandemic relief funds to 17 rural hospitals deemed eligible for aid. Hope’s facility did not receive any of these funds during that period.
Shelby Brown, the hospital’s Chief Administrative Officer, told lawmakers that Medicare and Medicaid account for about 66 percent of the hospital’s payers. Many patients who are at the highest risk rely on the hospital as their primary care provider. The facility receives just $12 for each Medicaid patient who uses its emergency room for non-emergency primary care.
Medical Center Seeks to Expand Services
The medical center is hopeful that federal funding will allow it to expand services. Brown said the hospital aims to add procedures such as colonoscopies, but first it must become financially stable. Lawmakers and local law enforcement noted that strengthening mental health services.
Law enforcement leaders voiced their support for the effort. Miller County Sheriff Wayne Easley said about one in five inmates in his county jail need mental health treatment. With no hospital in Texarkana, Miller County relies on Southwest Arkansas Regional as the nearest facility.
Texarkana Police Chief Ed Chattaway and Hope Police Chief Kimberly Tomlin added that the hospital could serve as a vital intervention point for people whose mental health challenges often bring them into contact with police.
Still, without stable funding, neither growth nor survival will be possible.
