UAMS Opens Satellite Transplant Clinic in Jonesboro
| LITTLE ROCK — A satellite clinic for UAMS Health’s kidney and liver transplant patients living in northeast Arkansas opens today at UAMS’ Northeast Regional Campus in Jonesboro.
Post-transplant follow-up care will be provided at the clinic, located inside the existing UAMS Family Medical Center at 311 E. Matthews St., on the second Friday of every month.
“I am excited about the UAMS satellite transplant center in Jonesboro because it provides greater accessibility to patients who live in Northeast Arkansas, and will promote stronger relationships and collaboration between UAMS and the health care providers in this region,” said Scott Dickson, M.D., director of the Northeast Regional Campus.
On March 26, UAMS will also open a satellite clinic for transplant patients inside the UAMS Family Medicine Clinic on the Southwest Regional Campus in Texarkana. The clinics in Jonesboro and Texarkana join a satellite clinic for transplant patients that has been operating at UAMS’ Northwest Regional Campus in Fayetteville since early 2019.
“Due to the incredible work of the regional programs, we have been able to better care for patients in their home communities,” said Lyle Burdine, M.D., Ph.D., surgical director for the solid organ transplant program at UAMS. “The Northwest Arkansas clinic has been very successful, and our patients really enjoy being cared for in their community. Patients in the Jonesboro and Texarkana areas have been wanting to be seen in their region for some time, and we are very excited to be able to help them.”
UAMS physicians will travel to the Fayetteville clinic on the first Friday of every month, to Jonesboro on the second Friday and to Texarkana on the fourth Friday.
In addition to transplant care, the clinics provide dialysis access evaluation; liver, pancreatic and cancer evaluation and care; management of disorders of the bile ducts; and care for liver failure and liver dysfunction.
Eventually, UAMS hopes to offer pre-transplant care, such as testing to determine whether a patient is medically suitable for a transplant, at the satellite clinics.
UAMS is the home of the only adult liver and kidney transplant programs in the state.
In a Jan. 5 report, the Scientific Registry of Transplant Recipients, which evaluates the status of the nation’s solid organ transplant system, gave UAMS’ kidney transplant program the highest ranking possible in two categories — the speed of obtaining donors and patient survivability one year after transplant. UAMS’ liver transplant program was one of only 10 nationwide for which the registry awarded four bars out of five in both categories.
UAMS is the state’s only health sciences university, with colleges of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Health Professions and Public Health; a graduate school; a hospital; a main campus in Little Rock; a Northwest Arkansas regional campus in Fayetteville; a statewide network of regional campuses; and eight institutes: the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute, Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute, Psychiatric Research Institute, Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging, Translational Research Institute, Institute for Digital Health & Innovation and the Institute for Community Health Innovation. UAMS includes UAMS Health, a statewide health system that encompasses all of UAMS’ clinical enterprise. UAMS is the only adult Level 1 trauma center in the state. UAMS has 3,275 students, 890 medical residents and fellows, and five dental residents. It is the state’s largest public employer with more than 12,000 employees, including 1,200 physicians who provide care to patients at UAMS, its regional campuses, Arkansas Children’s, the VA Medical Center and Baptist Health. Visit www.uams.edu or uamshealth.com. Find us on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), YouTube or Instagram.
###