Baptist Health is poised to break new ground in the state.

The hospital announced Wednesday plans to house Arkansas’ first organ transplant institute which will be dedicated to kidney and heart transplants.Doctors and patients say it is a set-up that is desperately needed.

Donna Parker’s heart problems began when she entered her twenties, some years ago.

But it wasn’t until the 1980s that she reached a breaking point; a decision to have surgery to save her life.

“I thought about it for several years and then I reached a point where I was no longer able to work. I did not feel like doing a great deal,” she said.

After a few short weeks on the Arkansas donor list, she went under the knife for her new heart.

Like more than 900 other Baptist Health transplant patients, Parker had to walk to different buildings for each procedure the doctor ordered.

Dr. Scott Young says that’s why the hospital needed a centralized unit for all transplant related visits.

“The second component of it is that; there are some patients that have to go out-of-state for their transplants because of different insurances. Some insurance companies like the idea of one large transplant institute,” he said.

The transplant institute will be the first of its kind in the state and will take up two floors in the hospital’s outpatient building. Boyd Ward with Arkansas Regional Organ Recovery Agency (ARORA), the state’s organ recovery agency, agrees the project could help draw attention to the donor registry as well.

“We’ve actually been able to double the donation rate in Arkansas, which is a great thing but even so, there are still people that die every year waiting for organs,” Ward said.

For a hospital that has meant so much to her, Parker traveled two hours to be at Wednesday’s announcement. She says she thinks the new institute will be a lifeline for future patients like her.

“To have it centralized is going to be wonderful,” Parker said.

The facility will be more than 5,320 sq-ft. and cost more than $2.2 million. Baptist Health officials say construction should be completed by next summer.