Ark. Code Ann. § 20-10-217: Construction program - Survey and planning activities

(a) The Department of Human Services is empowered and directed to make an inventory of existing medical facilities including public, nonprofit, and proprietary medical facilities, survey the need for construction of medical facilities, and, on the basis of the inventory and survey, develop a program for the construction of such public and other nonprofit medical facilities as will, in conjunction with existing facilities, afford the necessary physical facilities for furnishing adequate medical facility services to the people of the state in accordance with the regulations prescribed by the Hospital Survey and Construction Act, Pub. L. No. 79-725.

(b) The construction program shall provide, in accordance with regulations prescribed by the federal act, for adequate medical facilities for the people of the state, and insofar as possible shall provide for their distribution throughout the state in such manner as to make all types of medical facility services reasonably accessible to all persons in the state.