The following opinion column appeared in the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on October 4, 2026. Written by Rex Nelson, it examines the potential impact of the AWSOM Whole Health Campus on Arkansas and the broader region. Read the full article here.

Big, Bold, Brilliant

The AWSOM Whole Health Campus in Bentonville is a game-changer for Arkansas.

October 4, 2026 | By Rex Nelson

Those of us in the media have become so accustomed to good economic news coming out of northwest Arkansas that we underplay stories of significance from that region. Never has there been a better example of that than what happened on Sept. 17.

News of the 120-acre AWSOM Whole Health Campus in Bentonville should have been banner headlines across the front page of every newspaper in the state and the lead story on every television newscast. It was one of the most important announcements in recent Arkansas history.

The media totally missed the historic nature of the story. Yes, the Alice L. Walton Foundation's purchase of that land previously had been announced. Yes, a partnership between the foundation and the health-care system known as Mercy had been announced. Yes, the fact that specialty care would be offered had been announced. But this was far more than a groundbreaking ceremony. This project will be transformational for health care in Arkansas.

A $50 million pledge from the Tyson Family Foundation and Tyson Foods was new. It's wonderful. But that $50 million is only a fraction of what will be spent. An architect familiar with the project told me that $5 billion to $7 billion will be spent on the campus before all is said and done.

A hospital with 40 operating rooms hadn't been announced. Neither had a world-renowned cancer center covering more than a million square feet.

This news was every bit as important as when Alice Walton announced she was building Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. This campus will in essence become the Cleveland Clinic or Mayo Clinic of the South, attracting patients from around the world. It will change the trajectory of the entire state as it makes Arkansas a health-care destination. You don't have 40 operating rooms unless you expect to draw patients from across the country for surgeries.

Some media outlets also got it wrong when it was reported that this will be a $700 million campus, which would have been impressive, but nothing like a campus costing more than $5 billion.

A key aide to Walton told me:

“That amount was committed between Mercy and the Alice L. Walton Foundation back in 2024 and began to be deployed toward laying the foundation for enhancing specialty care services at Mercy Rogers as well as development of the AWSOM Whole Health Campus.

“The three buildings announced on Sept. 17, the Center for Advanced Specialty Care, an oncology center and a hospital, will total almost three million square feet and will have significant construction and development budgets beyond the $700 million commitment.”

The $5 billion to $7 billion that will be spent on the campus doesn't include the cost of attracting the internationally recognized physicians and researchers Walton will recruit. Remember when elites on the East Coast and West Coast laughed when Walton announced that she planned to build one of the world's top art museums in Arkansas? They're not laughing now. It will be the same with health care.

Specialty services on the campus will include cardiac care (in partnership with Cleveland Clinic), cancer care, orthopedics and gastroenterology. The name AWSOM Whole Health Campus is meant to build on work the Alice Walton School of Medicine (AWSOM) and Heartland Whole Health Institute are doing on the nearby Crystal Bridges campus.

Walton called the health care campus “an important step toward realizing a vision that has been years in the making. Through prioritizing a whole-health focus and bringing together excellent partners, we're creating a health-care destination.”

Walton wants northwest Arkansas to be the national example of innovative health-care delivery, and she has the resources to make it happen.

The Center for Advanced Specialty Care, which will focus on cardiac care, will be the first structure constructed. The 709,000-square-foot facility is scheduled to open in 2029. The cancer center and hospital will follow. In addition to those 40 operating rooms, the hospital will have more than 250 beds.

Mercy CEO Steve Mackin called last month's announcement “a defining moment” for the region.

“People deserve access to world-class specialty care close to home,” Mackin said. “Together with Alice and her team, we're building something unique, bringing leading-edge care, innovation and whole-person health to the heart of America while simultaneously addressing some of health care's biggest problems.”

Click here to continue to the full article.

Media inquiries: media@awsomwholehealth.org