University Hosp Of Arkansas

Description

The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences UAMS is one of the regions major academic health centers located in Little Rock Arkansas with outreach programs operating in every county and a regional campus in Northwest Arkansas In addition to our hospital and clinics UAMS includes five colleges and a graduate school eight Area Health Education Centers and six institutes of excellence UAMS Medical Center has completed a 540000 square foot expansion which gives our teaching hospital a total of 373 private adult patient rooms including 40 psychiatric rooms and 64 bassinets We have a new emergency department clinical lab and radiology department along with room to expand other services Adjacent to the new hospital is our new Psychiatric Research Institute Shell space is ready for longer term expansion of an additional 60 rooms

Mission
To teach to heal to search to serve

Vision
UAMS is a worldrenowned academic health sciences center improving the health of Arkansans

Core Values
Integrity We foster encourage and expect honesty and the highest ethical standards in all that we do

Respect We embrace a culture of professionalism with respect for the dignity of all persons honoring the unique contributions provided by a diversity of perspectives and cultures

Teamwork We seek to create interdisciplinary synergistic and collegial relationships characterized by collaboration inclusiveness and flexibility

Creativity We encourage and support innovation imagination ingenuity resourcefulness and vision

Excellence We strive to achieve through continuous improvement and adherence to institutional policies and best practices the highest quality and standards in all our endeavors

History

Just a few weeks before Thomas Edison invented the first light bulb in October 1879 eight physicians pooled their money and invested 5000 to start the first medical school in Arkansas The eight founding physicians were led by Dr P O Hooper of Little Rock and the street where many patients and visitors now enter the UAMS campus is named in his honor

The initial investment of 625 made by each of the founding physicians now represents more than 5 billion in economic impact for the state of Arkansas from UAMS and its affiliates every year

The former Sperindo Restaurant and Hotel in downtown Little Rock served as the first home for what was then known as the Medical Department of Arkansas Industrial University As enrollment grew into the 20th century the school was housed in several different locations including the Old State House in downtown Little Rock A new medical school was built in the 1930s with funding provided by President Franklin Roosevelts Public Works Administration Additional funding was provided by a tax on beer and liquor assessed by the Arkansas state legislature

In 1951 Governor Sid McMath used funds from a new cigarette tax to secure 74 million for a new University Hospital on a 26acre site on West Markham Street in what was then the outskirts of Little Rock The University of Arkansas Medical Center moved into the new hospital in 1956 Air conditioning came to patients rooms 10 years later

UAMS was transformed from a small medical school with a charity hospital into an academic health center and research leader under the direction of Dr Harry P Ward who served as chancellor from 1979 to 2000 The Harry P Ward Tower which opened in 1997 is named in his honor Dr Ward was succeeded as chancellor by Dr I Dodd Wilson in 2000

Building on the foundation laid by Dr Ward Dr Wilson began the most ambitious building program in the institutions 125 years of growth This round of expansion included nearly 500 million in building projects begun in 2001 to provide additional space for education patient care research and outreach programs

Among the projects was an education building opened in 2008 that the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees named the I Dodd Wilson Education Building in honor of Wilson who retired in late 2009 Wilson was succeeded by Dr Dan Rahn

In early 2009 UAMS opened a new hospital a 540000squarefoot facility with 234 adult beds and 60 neonatal beds This facility enables the people of UAMS to create comfort hope and healing for more patients and families than ever before

The new hospital and the adjoining Psychiatric Research Institute will serve as the center of the institutions now 84acre campus Also in 2009 in response to a nationwide shortage of health care professionals UAMS opened a northwest Arkansas satellite campus in Fayetteville to help produce more physicians nurses pharmacist and other health care professionals

In addition to its stateofthe art hospital and outpatient center UAMS is home to the Colleges of Medicine Nursing Pharmacy Health Related Professions Public Health and a Graduate School with growing enrollment that included 2775 students and 748 resident physicians

Winthrop P Rockefeller Cancer Institute which serves as the official cancer research and treatment institution in Arkansas The Cancer Institute was founded as the Arkansas Cancer Research Center in 1984 and renamed to honor the late lieutenant governor of Arkansas in 2007 A 12floor expansion is currently under way and scheduled for completion in 2010 The number of patient visits to the Cancer Institute has tripled in the past ten years and today onethird of the revenue generated by UAMS is from Cancer Institute patient care

The Myeloma Institute for Research and Therapy at UAMS is part of the Cancer Institute and has performed more blood stem cell transplants for myeloma than any other facility in the world Each year the Myeloma Institute evaluates about 600 new patients Seventy percent of these patients are from outside of Arkansas coming to UAMS from all over the United States and from abroad On any given day there are about 200 myeloma patients staying in Little Rock for diagnosis and treatment of their disease

The Harvey amp Bernice Jones Eye Institute was founded in 1994 and houses the Department of Ophthalmology and the Pat amp Willard Walker Eye Research Center Through a nationwide network the Eye Bank provides the gift of sight to more than 600 patients each year

The UAMS Psychiatric Research Institute is one of only nine institutions in the country to combine psychiatric research and education with inpatient and outpatient care and is one of the most innovative psychiatric treatment and research facilities in the nation

The Jackson T Stephens Spine amp Neurosciences Institute at UAMS is a center for research education and clinical care related to the spine and features an expansive physical therapy room with special equipment that can measure minute improvements in patients progress and a wheelchairaccessible swimming pool designed for water therapy

The Donald W Reynolds Institute on Aging home to the UAMS Department of Geriatrics is one of the most recognized geriatric centers in the nation The department was established in 1997 and by 2003 was listed in the top 10 geriatrics programs in medical schools by US News and World Report

Today UAMS has outreach programs operating in every county of the state including eight Area Health Education Centers eight regional Centers on Aging and one of the most successful Head Start programs in the nation