JONESBORO — Basing plans on a similar facility developed in Northwest Arkansas five years ago, Arkansas Children’s Hospital and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences have opened a clinic in Jonesboro.
The Centers for Children clinic on Carson Street in Jonesboro began treating neurology patients on Aug. 20 and will begin seeing cardiology patients next month, hospital officials said.
Officials will announce its formal opening today during a ceremony at the clinic.
“We felt this was a good time to expand our presence outside the Little Rock campus,” said Mark Amox, administrator with the UAMS Department of Pediatrics.
“We saw how hugely successful the clinic is doing in Northwest Arkansas, and we thought we could expand the same concept around the state.”
Arkansas Children’s Hospital and UAMS, both based in Little Rock, opened the Lowell branch clinic in 2007.
Officials anticipated treating about 1,000 patients that first fiscal year, said Lee Anne Eddy, vice president of ambulatory services at the children’s hospital. Instead, physicians saw 4,000 patients during the first fiscal year of operation.
During the past fiscal year, which ended in July,the Centers for Children in Lowell saw 13,000 patients.
In August, physicians saw 98 patients at the Jonesboro center. They saw 116 more children through Sept. 25 officials said.
Amox said the Jonesboro clinic eliminates the threehour drive from Jonesboro to its Little Rock hospital that patients had to make to seek treatment.
“Our design is to meet the kids where they are,” he said.
Some Little Rock physicians will travel to Jonesboro to provide services. But others, such as Dr. Stephen Bates, a children’s neurologist in Jonesboro, are based at the clinic.
“This is an absolute answer to prayer,” said Melanie Bolden of Harrisburg, whose son Gregory, 15, suffers from autism, and daughter Gracie, 10, has Asperger’s syndrome. Bates has treated both ofBolden’s children.
“We’re getting the care we need,” she said. “Having to go to Little Rock often took me off of work. I was worried I might not keep the job if I kept having to leave.
“As a parent, you want to help your children and improve their quality of life the best you can,” she said.
Amox said he anticipates the Jonesboro clinic will add more specialties for patients, depending upon need.
“It will be based upon patient need and the availability of doctors,” he said. “If we see another service is needed in Jonesboro, we’ll do everything we can to get it there.”
Hospital officials scouted Jonesboro for the clinic’s location and found about eightplaces, Eddy said.
The Carson Street facility worked the best, she said, because it was previously a daycare center and the needed alterations to convert it into a clinic were minimal. There are eight rooms that workers made into examinationrooms and a room that will be used for EEG tests, which measure brain activity.
The building is across the street from St. Bernards Medical Center, which has partnered with the Centers for Children clinic in Jonesboro and will provide laboratory work for blood, radiology and X-rays.
“We were looking for space, and we found Jonesboro’s centralized medical core,” Eddy said. “This just happened to be available. The size and the location were perfect.”
Eddy said the Jonesboro clinic cardiology’s wing will feature doctors previously with The Children’s Clinic on South Church Street in Jonesboro who will treat about 20 to 25 patients aday.
The new Centers for Children clinic will add to the facilities in an area in Jonesboro known as the “Miracle Mile,” which includes St. Bernards Medical Center and several physicians’ offices.
Northwest Arkansas, Pages 7 on 09/27/2012