Washington Regional Medical Center
The primary clinical site for this residency is Washington Regional Medical Center. Educational activities or simulation exercises may, on rare occasions, take place at the UAMS Northwest Regional Campus, about two miles from Washington Regional.
Washington Regional is a community-owned, locally governed, non-profit health care system located in Northwest Arkansas, employing over 3,400 team members and serving the region with a 425-bed medical center, over 50 clinic locations and five Centers of Excellence – the Washington Regional J.B. Hunt Transport Services Neuroscience Institute; Washington Regional Walker Heart Institute; Washington Regional Women and Infants Center; Washington Regional Total Joint Center; and Washington Regional Pat Walker Center for Seniors.
Washington Regional is the region’s only Level 2 trauma center, the only Joint Commission-designated Comprehensive Stroke Center in the state, one of only two hospitals in the state to earn Spine Surgery Certification from The Joint Commission, and the first hospital in Arkansas to be named an Antimicrobial Stewardship Center of Excellence by the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Washington Regional has once again been recognized as the #1 hospital in Arkansas by U.S. News and World Report for 2023-2024, being ranked as high performing in 12 areas of care – abdominal aortic aneurysm repair, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, diabetes, heart attack, heart failure, hip fracture, hip replacement, kidney failure, knee replacement, lung cancer surgery, pneumonia, and stroke.
The state-of-the-art Emergency Department has 40 beds, including 3 trauma bays and an urgent care area, and sees more than 54,000 patient visits per year. Roughly 26% of ED visits lead to an admission, with 4.7% of all visits resulting in an admission to a critical care unit. Residents receive a broad clinical experience with a diverse patient population as they care for children and adults of all cultures in the emergency department and inpatient rotations. WRMC provides care in all specialty areas and both required and elective clinical experiences are completed at this site in multiple clinical disciplines.
Washington Regional’s leadership is strongly committed to GME. In 2022, the hospital invested millions into building a 6400 square foot GME Suite on the third floor, above the ED. This space is badge access only and contains classrooms, resident lounge, team rooms, lockers, program offices, and resident-only call rooms. The GME Suite is regularly stocked with food and drinks, and hot meals are provided free of charge during noon conferences/didactic days.
Washington Regional is committed to improving the health of people in communities it serves through compassionate, high-quality care, prevention, and wellness education. Visit wregional.com for more information.
Pictures of the Washington Regional GME Space
Arkansas Children’s Northwest Hospital
Arkansas Children’s Northwest
Arkansas Children’s Northwest (ACNW) is the only children’s hospital in Northwest Arkansas and is part of the larger Arkansas Children’s Hospital system. ACNW is a Level 4 Trauma Center that treats roughly 45,000 children annually in the emergency department. The ED has 24 private exam rooms and two trauma/resuscitation bays. In addition to ED care, ACNW provides inpatient and outpatient primary and specialty pediatric care, surgery, imaging services, lab, and physical, occupational, and speech therapy services.
Our residents have three 4-week rotations at ACNW in the ED, working under the supervision of faculty board certified in pediatric emergency medicine. We are the only residency program regularly rotating in the ED. Residents are exposed to a broad spectrum of clinical presentations of the acutely ill or injured child, from routine urgent care pediatrics to the acute resuscitation of life-threatening emergencies that require intensive care, along with the initial assessment and plan for standard general pediatric cases that are admitted to the hospital.
ACNW is located six miles from Washington Regional, a drive that normally takes about 10-15 minutes. While on rotation here, residents have protected time for didactics and can attend in person or participate remotely.
Arkansas Children’s Hospital
Arkansas Children’s Hospital (ACH) houses the busiest emergency department in the state with almost 62,000 annual patient visits, and is part of the only Arkansas hospital system devoted entirely to the care of children. It is staffed by Board-Certified pediatricians on a 24-hour basis. ACH is the primary site for the pediatric emergency medicine, pediatric intensive care, pediatric anesthesia, and pediatric night float experience rotations, including didactics, with residents from UAMS’s Little Rock-based Emergency Medicine residency program. Residents in our program spend one 4-week rotation here in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU).
While on this rotation, transportation costs and lodging are provided by the residency program.
Central EMS
Central EMS provides ambulance service to 920 square miles of Washington County, serving over 200,000 people. In 2019, Central EMS became accredited with the Commission on Accreditation of Ambulance Services (CAAS). This accreditation is presented to ambulance services that meet the highest quality of standards and care. The Central EMS dispatch team is an IAED accredited 9-1-1 center in the state of Arkansas, and dispatchers are all trained and certified to provide the best care and instruction to people in need until the paramedics arrive.
Residents spend two weeks, or half of one rotation block, at Central EMS substations, where they respond to calls with the EMS team and provide supervised patient care.