UAMS Doubles Efforts to Recruit Physicians to the Delta
| LITTLE ROCK – The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) has doubled its efforts to recruit physicians and nurse practitioners to rural areas of the Arkansas Delta by hiring a second full-time recruiter to serve the lower Delta region.
The Southern Rural Access Program hired the second recruiter, Vearnail Rowe of Lake Village, because of the success of its initial Delta physician recruitment program. Rowe will be stationed in Lake Village and serve Ashley, Chicot, Drew, Desha, Lincoln, and Arkansas Counties. Funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Southern Rural Access Program is housed in the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement, a joint program of UAMS and the Arkansas Department of Health.
Vearnail Rowe (UAMS)
“Mrs. Rowe is off to a running start because she is a Lake Village native and knows the needs and the people. She and her husband are rearing their family in the Delta and she is committed to its health and economic viability,” Elaine Wootten of the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement said.
Rowe was previously chief compliance officer and risk manager at Chicot Memorial Hospital in Lake Village. She holds an M.B.A. from the University of Arkansas.
The center has received approximately $2.3 million from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to help local communities recruit physicians. The center’s first full-time recruiter, Joy Shepherd of Helena, has recruited 10 physicians and nurse practitioners for vacancies in Delta communities during the first 18 months of the project. She has singlehandedly served 14 Delta counties: Mississippi, Crittenden, Cross, Woodruff, St. Francis, Lee, Monroe, Phillips, Arkansas, Lincoln, Desha, Drew, Ashley, and Chicot. Shepherd also has helped communities to identify and obtain resources that support retention of physicians.
The Delta Area Health Education Center, another UAMS program in Helena, contributed funds for the first recruiter position and obtained a federal grant to support the second recruiter position.
The Southern Rural Access Program also provides related services to improve rural access to health care, including technical assistance in practice management for physicians and a revolving loan fund.
Contact Rowe at 870-265-5351, ext. 250.