UAMS Expands Capacity of Fort Smith Medical Clinic
by January 7, 2012 10:47 pm 79 views
The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Family Medical Center – Fort Smith has added a 4,378-SF clinic building.
The medical center also plans to increase its number of family medicine residents to 30 over the next three years.
The additional space, a remodeled building at 600 S. 14th St., opened Nov. 28 one block from the Family Medical Center and the UAMS Area Health Education Center West. It gives the clinic a total of 27,718 SF to accommodate increasing demand for care and provide more education space.
The new clinic has six exams rooms and an updated waiting room with a children’s play area.
The additional residency positions, funded by the federal Health Resources and Services Administration, will be phased in, with two residents added each year. The amount of funding to support the new positions will be announced this spring.
AHEC West director Don Heard said in a release that the clinic’s patient volume has increased by 24.5 percent since 2007.
He also said he’s excited to have more medical school graduates coming for their residency training.
“Hopefully they will stay here in Arkansas and provide care to Arkansans,” he said.
To become a family medicine physician, medical school graduates must complete three more years of training as residents, treating patients under the direction of an attending physician.
The Family Medical Center currently has 11 faculty physicians, two nurse practitioners, a pharmacist and a social worker.