UAMS Primary Care Clinic Awarded Blue & You Grant
| LITTLE ROCK – The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) has been awarded a $149,000 grant from the Blue & You Foundation for a Healthier Arkansas that will help provide more comprehensive primary care to patients seen by physicians in the Department of Internal Medicine.
The grant was the second largest of 23 recent Blue & You grant awards and will benefit about 2,000 patients seen each year in the UAMS Internal Medicine Resident Clinic in Little Rock. Internal medicine residents are new physicians who see and treat patients for three years while under the supervision of a UAMS faculty physician.
The grant will be used to improve electronic medical records and hire a pharmacist and a nurse care coordinator, said JoAnn Phillips Wood, M.D., director of the Division of General Internal Medicine.
“We will all work as a team to better manage our patients’ care,” Wood said. “Our goal is to teach our internal medicine residents in an ideal clinic setting so that they can experience the best practices available.”
By implementing the improvements, Wood said her division will create a “patient-centered medical home” for patients and seek accreditation by the National Committee for Quality Alliance.
The Blue & You Foundation recently awarded $1,723,343 in grants to the 23 health improvement programs in Arkansas.
“Our grants this year went to programs throughout Arkansas that address such issues as obesity, diabetes, healthy lifestyle choices, medical care for low-income individuals, dental health and safety,” said Patrick O’Sullivan, executive director of the Blue & You Foundation.
Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield established the Blue & You Foundation in 2001 as a charitable foundation to promote better health in Arkansas. The Blue & You Foundation awards grants annually to nonprofit or governmental organizations and programs that positively affect the health of Arkansans. In its nine years of operation, the Blue & You Foundation has awarded nearly $12 million to 185 health improvement programs in Arkansas.
UAMS is the state’s only comprehensive academic health center, with colleges of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Health Related Professions and Public Health; a graduate school; a 540,000-square-foot hospital; a statewide network of regional centers; and six institutes: the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, the Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute, the Myeloma Institute for Research and Therapy, the Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute, the Psychiatric Research Institute and the Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging. It is the only adult Level 1 trauma center in the state. UAMS has 2,836 students and 761 medical residents. It is the state’s largest public employer with more than 10,000 employees, including nearly 1,150 physicians who provide medical care to patients at UAMS, Arkansas Children’s Hospital, the VA Medical Center and UAMS’ Area Health Education Centers throughout the state. Visit www.uams.edu or uamshealth.com.