Ark. Code Ann. § 20-9-206: Construction program - Survey and planning activities

(a) The State Board of Health is empowered and directed to make an inventory of existing hospitals and medical facilities including public, nonprofit, and proprietary hospitals and medical facilities, to survey the need for construction of hospitals and medical facilities and, on the basis of the inventory and survey, to develop a program for the construction of such public and other nonprofit hospitals and medical facilities as will, in conjunction with existing facilities, afford the necessary physical facilities for furnishing adequate hospital and medical facility services to the people of the state in accordance with the regulations prescribed by the federal act.

(b) The construction program shall provide, in accordance with regulations prescribed by the federal act, for adequate hospital and 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 hospital and medical facility services reasonably accessible to all persons in the state.