University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences - Caduceus Yearbook (Little Rock, AR)

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VETERAN'S ADMINISTRATION HOSPITAL The Little Rock Veterans Administration Hospital has a tota1 bed capacity of 471 with 9,939 admissions last year and 71,979 outpatient visits. The VAH provides medical and surgical clerkships for junior and senior students and is engaged in an active internship and residency program. In the past year, several improvements have been made in the Little Rock VA Hospital. Four new faculty members, Drs. Padilla, Hall, Adamson, and Patterson, are on the medicine faculty. A new outpatient clinic for opthalmology has just been completed. An 8 bed medicine intensive care unit, a 4 bed coronary care unit, and a 10 bed surgery intensive care unit are under construction. New equipment has been added to the radiology department, and a hemodialysis unit has been approved. 22

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UNIVERSITY OF ARKANSAS MEDICAL CENTER The University Medical Center took positive action during the past year toward meeting the rising level of expectations from the health services in Arkansasg more and better qualified doctors, nurses, pharmacists and health science technologists, quicker and better delivery of new services to patients, and greater freedom of choice by the patient through greater financial independence. The UAMC met the challenge presented by these goals in the following ways: 1. In 1968, 86 Physicians, 23 Nurses, 41 Pharmacists, and 6 Medical Technicians were graduated by the center. 2. 20 students began classes in the School of Dental Hygiene and 6 in the School of Cytotechnology. 3. Medical research received a continuing source of funds through a bequest of 51,000,000 from the late Mrs. T. H. Barton of El Dorado. X 4. A third-generation computer was installed which has capabilities ranging from the monitoring of vital signs of patients in intensive care to the storage of legal information concerning malpractice suits. 5. A Children and Youth Project was funded to provide comprehensive care for 8,000 children in deprived areas of Greater Little Rock. 6, Construction on the new Child Study Unit to provide for the psychiatric evaluation and treatment of children and for the training of Arkansas teachers of children with learning problems was scheduled for completion during the year. 7. Approval was secured from the Arkansas General Assembly for a proposal to permit income from professional fees to be used to supplement medical faculty salaries, and as a result the new University Medical Group was established in the hospital to serve referring physicians and their private patients. Consultants to the Commission on Coordination of Higher Educational Finance have recommended that the Medical Center open an additional 123 beds to be earmarked primarily for private, or full-pay, patients. This recommendation adds impetus to the UAMC plan to assume greater financial independence and would also allow the institution to extend its unique services to a larger share of the people of Arkansas. Looking further into the future, the Medical Center has submitted to the Commission of Coordination of Higher Educational Finance a ten-year plan for construction needs to add new educational programs and extend its opportunities for research and service. Consultants are preparing a list of construction priorities which will permit full utilization of the existing structure and provide for orderly progression into the Medical Center's new phase of development.

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