Thursday, July 29, 2021 At least one hospital in Northwest Arkansas is making changes in light of the increasing number of COVID-19 infections in the region and across the state, while another is continuing on the same path chosen last April. In a news release issued last week, Birch Wright, the chief operating officer and administrator for Fayetteville-based Washington Regional Medical System, said the healthcare system would be moving to Phase 2 of its COVID-19 Surge Plan. This allows us to temporarily reassign some of our hospital and clinic team members to assist in areas of most critical need in the hospital, Wright said. It also allows us to move to a team-based nursing approach where primary nurses have support from secondary nurses for non-specialized tasks. These actions will allow us to expand our capacity, making it possible for us to care for an increased number of COVID and non-COVID patients.