Arkansas ranks low in many national health rankings but is near the top when it comes to keeping the doctors it trains. Health leaders say that means Northwest Arkansas should benefit from an increasing number of area health education opportunities.
The state's medical school continues expanding programs in Northwest Arkansas. An osteopathic school is under construction in Fort Smith. Nursing students have a growing number of education venues.
Arkansas physician workforce
Active physicians 5,877
Primary care physicians 2,295
Female physicians 1,510
Medical or osteopathic students 691
Residents 747
Source: Association of American Medical Colleges
"We're seeing expansion across all areas," said Sue Tedford, executive director of the Arkansas State Board of Nursing. "It's great for the state and the surrounding area."
Mike Malone, president and CEO of the Northwest Arkansas Council, said health care is already a huge part of the area's economy and making sure it is strong and continually strengthening is important from an economic performance perspective.
The council's Greater Northwest Arkansas Development Strategy points to building the area's health care offerings as an economic development opportunity and lists supporting programs and policies that strengthen the workforce in health care a priority. That includes working with the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences' Northwest satellite campus.
"Do they have access to the workforce to offer what is needed here?" he asked of area health care providers.
Area schools hope to help answer that question.
The rankings
Arkansas ranked 48th in the 2015 America's Health Rankings by the United Health Foundation but ranked second at retaining state-trained physicians.
The Association of American Medical Colleges reports that 59 percent of medical undergraduates from the state's medical school, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, stay in state. The national average for retaining these graduates is 39 percent.
"Some states would be thrilled if they got to 50 percent," said Dr. John E. Prescott, the association's chief academic officer. "To get above that is great."
The percentage jumps to 81 when it includes physicians receiving both their undergraduate and graduate education in state. The national average is 68 percent.
Julie Anne Hoff, chairwoman of the Eleanor Mann School of Nursing at the University of Arkansas, said about 60 percent of the school's students come from out of state but 30 to 40 percent stay in the area after graduating.
"Recognizing Arkansas is 50th for obesity and 49th for quality of life, those are important outcomes nurses can impact," she said. "Education of nursing is key to impacting health outcomes for patients."
Medical school
The state's medical school is based in Little Rock, but it opened a satellite campus in Fayetteville in 2009. The local campus has steadily increased options, including a physical therapy program that started last year and an internal medicine residency program starting in July.
Prescott said several medical schools are expanding into regional campuses, and that is an important move.
"Schools are finding they can have a better reach into the community to offer better care and cutting edge research," he said.
Dr. Peter Kohler, vice chancellor for the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Northwest, said the area is behind in the number of health care workers it needs and points to a growing and aging population as key reasons.
"Primary care is still needed, but as the area grows there is an increased need for specialties," he said.
The school started a physical therapy program last year and is the school's first full medical program offered outside Little Rock. The first class has 24 students enrolled for the three-year program.
Jennifer Vincenzo, an assistant professor of the program, said the classes are kept small on purpose.
"We want them to be able to treat us some day," she said.
Katie Bowin is part of the inaugural class and hopes to go into geriatrics. She is from Tahlequah, Okla., and said she doesn't know where she will practice once she graduates.
"A lot of my classmates want to stay within a couple of hours of Northwest Arkansas," she said.
The school has eight physicians who will begin an internal medicine residency program for graduate-level training in July, and the school is studying a joint program with the University of Arkansas for occupational therapy, Kohler said.
"It is something that should be able to fund itself," he said.
Cost is one hurdle the school faces as it explores starting a dental school. Arkansas does not have one, and students must go out of state, he said. The state also ranks last in dentists per capita.
The school hired a consulting firm earlier this year to study the feasibility of developing a dental college. Kohler said the report should be ready in April. He said no cost has been set yet, but a price tag of more than $80 million has been tossed around.
Osteopathic school
The Arkansas Colleges of Health Education is in the midst of building an osteopathic school on 228 acres at Chaffee Crossing in Fort Smith. A doctor of osteopathic medicine is a fully trained and licensed doctor like a conventional, or allopathic, doctor.
The main difference between the degrees is some osteopathic doctors provide manual medicine therapies, such as spinal manipulation or massage therapy, as part of their treatment. The American Osteopathic Association said physicians practice a patient-centered philosophy of medicine in every medical specialty.
Prescott said there are approximately 30 osteopathic schools nationwide, but that number is increasing to help meet the doctor need. There are 145 medical schools across the country.
Kyle Parker, president and CEO of Arkansas Colleges of Health Education, said the Fort Smith school is working its way through the accreditation process and won't start recruiting students until it receives a provisional accreditation. It can't earn full accreditation until the first class graduates.
A 102,000-square-foot, $34 million building is under construction and should be move-in ready early this summer, Parker said.
"It's our hope that we will meet the needs of the entire state of Arkansas," he said.
Nursing education
John Brown University is creating a new undergraduate nursing school at the same time the University of Arkansas continues to expand advanced education opportunities.
The Siloam Springs school is in the midst of building a a 20,000-square-foot Health Sciences building that will be home to the university's new nursing program.
Jeff Terrell, dean of the university's College of Education and Human Services, said the building should be finished this summer and the first group of nurses should start in the fall. He said plans were to admit about 40 students per year, but they are in excess of that.
"One of the things we are finding is this huge shortage of nurses nationally is predicted to continue. There is a tremendous need," he said. "We were shocked at the number of applicants we had."
Total cost of construction and development of the nursing program is about $12 million, and Terrell said about 75 percent has already be raised.
The program will focus on a concept-based curriculum, meaning students will also learn about mental health and preventative medicine, he said.
"I'm a psychologist by training, and you see a focus on mental health in primary care," Terrell said. "Some counts are as high as 70 percent of visits [involving] some sort of mental health issue."
He said administrators are discussing future degree work such as psychiatric nursing.
The University of Arkansas doubled enrollment to its nursing school to 200 students a year after it opened the Epley Center for Health Professionals in 2012.
The school's first four students graduated last year from the doctorate in nursing program that started in 2012, Hoff said. The full-time, online program has 60 students and prepares advance-practice nurses who want to focus on clinical settings.
"We are making sure we are putting out a good product," she said. "We know the better educated the nurse is, the better the outcomes are."
The University of Arkansas also offers an online degree-completer program in nursing designed to allow registered nurses to complete previous work toward a bachelor's of science in nursing. The first four students finished that program in 2013.
Nurses will continue to face new opportunities as new careers evolve that haven't been created yet, she said.
A new program Hoff said she hopes is approved this fall is a master's in professional leadership designed to help nurses with things such as managing people, budgets, strategic planning and policies. The first students could enroll in the fall of 2017.
Between 400 and 500 students apply each year for the school's 200 open undergraduate nursing spots, Hoff said.
Other programs
Educational choices for health care support roles are also expanding.
Northwest Arkansas Community College started a health information management program that teaches students to collect, protect, integrate, disseminate and analyze health care data. The first 11 students earned certificates in June -- nine earned associate of applied science degrees in health information management, and two received certificates in health information management coding.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics says job openings for medical records and health information technicians are expected to increase by 21 percent from 2010 to 2022, faster than the average for all occupations.
The community college put a focus on health education in 2013 when it opened the Center for Health Professions.
The $14.2 million facility houses the health information management program as well as the nursing, respiratory therapy, physical therapy assistant, paramedic, emergency medical technician, fire science, certified nurse assistant and patient care assistant program.
Northwest Technical Institute in Springdale began a six-week certified nursing assistant program in 2013.
The course prepares students to work in long-term and acute care positions. It teaches basic nursing assistant procedures such as infection prevention and control, patient rights and transferring techniques.
The school also offers programs in practical nursing and surgical technology.
NW News on 03/27/2016