UAMS Northeast Regional Campus Celebrates 40th Anniversary
| July 18, 2019 | Forty years of working to educate family residents to fill gaps in care created by the shortage of physicians in rural Arkansas filled the atrium of the UAMS Northeast Regional Campus building on July 16 with applauding, appreciative well-wishers.
The more than 100 former residents, local officials and staff were there to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the establishment in 1979 of what is now the UAMS Northeast Regional Campus.
“I want to call your attention to something I find really amazing. This graphic right here,” UAMS Chancellor Cam Patterson, M.D., MBA, said at the start of the celebration while pointing to a poster on the wall. “It tells a huge part of the story of this campus. Of the 200 graduates of the residency program, 160 have stayed here in Arkansas. That is simply amazing.”
Celebrants visit with each other at UAMS Northeast after the formal part of the event.
The physicians finishing the residency program at the regional campus have gone into practices across the state, but 55 percent have stayed in the northeast region. Of the 160 who stayed in Arkansas, 44 percent practice in rural areas, while 40 percent of the 160 practice in communities of less than 15,000 people, Patterson said.
The chancellor also thanked St. Bernards Medical Center in Jonesboro for its decades-long partnership with the regional campus. Residents see patients at the hospital. Until 2015, the program was headquartered in a part of the medical center campus.
Early in 2015, it moved into a four-story office building renovated with support from the Middleton Family and the Judd Hill Foundation. The move provided better access to patients and enabled the office to function more efficiently.
Apart from training new graduates of medical colleges to be family medicine residents, the campus’ UAMS Family Medical Center in Jonesboro provides primary care medical services to patients of all ages. It offers treatment of immediate medical needs and ongoing treatment for chronic conditions such as asthma, diabetes, hypertension and arthritis. The clinic provides convenient diagnostic and support services on site and minor office surgical procedures. It serves the 10-county region of Clay, Craighead, Cross, Greene, Jackson, Lawrence, Mississippi, Poinsett, Randolph and Woodruff counties.
At UAMS Northeast Regional Campus and the other seven regional campuses across Arkansas, UAMS has created “pipelines” from the state’s high schools to recruit and educate new physicians.
Sterling Moore, MBA, vice chancellor of UAMS Regional Campuses, outlined how one new resident in Jonesboro, Jerad Burks, M.D, traveled down that pipeline. In 2009, as a high school student, Burks went through a two-week, summer Medical Application of Sciences and Health (MASH) Camp organized at the regional campus. Next, to qualify for medical college, Burks participated in a preparatory course to take the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) and received mentoring while an undergraduate. While attending UAMS College of Medicine, Burks served as a MASH assistant, mentoring high school students. In March, he found out he would be doing his residency at UAMS Northeast Regional Campus.
Sterling Moore, right, vice chancellor for UAMS Regional Campuses, describes the “pipeline” for the recruitment and development of residents.
Once he completes his residency there, he plans on working in private practice in his hometown of Manila.
“As you can see, the pipeline is invaluable to educating medical doctors in Arkansas,” Moore said. “It illustrates why starting educational activities in high school is paramount to reducing the shortage of rural physicians. Over the past three years, results of our pre-health professional efforts show that we have had on average 50 students accepted to our College of Medicine.”
The residency director at UAMS Northeast Regional Campus, Scott Dickson, M.D., is a native of Jonesboro and a graduate of UAMS College of Medicine.
“I think being a product of that pipeline has made me appreciate the importance of that,” Dickson said. “Hopefully, I and my experience here serve to recruit others into a career in medicine.”
Jonesboro Mayor Harold Perrin spoke to the audience, highlighting the positive economic impact the regional campus has had on Jonesboro and the northeast region. He said every physician hired in Arkansas comes with 11 jobs — five are directly related to the physician and six are indirectly related. That translates into a total economic impact of $1.8 million per physician.
Cassie Hunter, M.D., a former regional campus resident, now practices in Walnut Ridge and is raising a family there. She helped close out the formal part of the celebration.
“The last family I want to mention is the family I gained by being a part of UAMS Northeast,” Hunt said. “Whether they were in administration, clinic staff or faculty, I don’t think you’ll find another group of people who care as much about the residents as human beings than these folks. They became my family and some of my best friends. I’m so thankful for the training I have received here and the career I have chosen in Lawrence County.”
Ron Cole, MBA, regional executive director for UAMS Regional Campuses — Northern Arkansas, thanked the organizers of the celebration and invited attendees to tour the campus facility and enjoy food and cake that were provided.
A community event was held for patients and the public later in the afternoon. It included health screenings, health education and food, and for children, a teddy bear clinic and a story-time reading