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Gazing into the Crystal Ball
With the healthcare community eyeing 2007, Medical News of Arkansas surveyed healthcare leaders from around the state to determine what they believe will be priority issues next year.
All were asked the same question: What are some things to be on the lookout for in Arkansas healthcare in 2007?
BY JEREMY PEPPAS |
Arkansas Could Lose Children's Health Insurance Money
Proposed federal legislation could take back millions of dollars from Arkansas' State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), which covers the children of the working poor.
In 2007, 17 states will face an $800 million shortfall in the federally funded program, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. However, Illinois, New Jersey, Massachusetts and Georgia account for $724 million of the total shortfall anticipated.
BY TED GRIGGS |
Dr. Cynthia Ross
Dr. Cynthia Ross is a rare commodity in Arkansas.
The radiation oncologist, who works at Central Arkansas Radiation Therapy Institute/Baptist, is among just a handful of specialists in that genre in the entire state.
"In Little Rock, you have nine that work in the CARTI system and three more who work at UAMS," Ross said. "For the rest of the state, it isn't that many more, I'd say around 20 or so."
BY JEREMY PEPPAS |
Healthcare Leaders Detail Facility Plans for 2007
As part of the survey effort, some healthcare leaders answered more detailed questions concerning facility plans for 2007.
Kurt Meyers, CEO, Rebsamen Medical Center, Jacksonville
Medical News: As CEO at Rebsamen Medical Center, you have fast-growing Cabot to the north and the Little Rock Air Force Base in your backyard.
BY JEREMY PEPPAS |
St. Vincent Intensivist Program Enhances Patient Care
St. Vincent might be a big city hospital, but its intensivist program feels more like a small-town hospital, and that's by design.
"I'd agree with that," Dr. Clifton Johnson, the assistant director of the intensivist program, said. "It is the same team of people treating patients, and we spend all our time working in the ICU."
BY JEREMY PEPPAS |
Texarkana: A Town Split in Two
TEXARKANA — Not many places are like Texarkana. "You got Bristol," related one local chamber of commerce official of multi-state towns. "You got Fargo, but no, not many places like here."
The key is the state line, literally State Line Road in Texarkana that splits the town between Arkansas and Texas.
BY JEREMY PEPPAS |
Doctors Find Choice Jobs Online
The newest player on the employment field — doctorsjobsite.com — launched in July, has already become a national hot Web spot for physicians wanting to make a location move or better their career, and for recruiters and employers searching for just the right doctor to fit their needs.
Doctorsjobsite.com founder, Hattiesburg, Miss. resident John Donovan, said although the site is somewhat like a Monster.com in that it provides an easy way to do a job search, makes application, and provides search tools for employers and recruiters, it has a couple of real distinguishing factors.
By GLORIA BUTLER BALDWIN |
Wal-Mart Takes Aim at Lowering Drug Costs
The company that revolutionized retailing in America has set its sights on the generic drug market. And by all accounts, the marketing war triggered by Wal-Mart's $4 generic drug offer will have a lasting impact on pharmaceutical prices.
Beginning in Tampa, Fla., Wal-Mart has begun selling a 30-day supply of select generic drugs for $4.
By JOHN CARROLL |
Hospitals Need Assembly's Help to Cure Medicaid Payment Ills
Arkansas hospitals receive 44 percent of the cost of treating Medicaid members on an outpatient basis, a formula that costs the healthcare providers millions of dollars each year.
The payment system has been in place since 1992, and increasing those payments is one of biggest issues now facing the state's hospitals, said Paul Cunningham, senior vice president of the Arkansas Hospital Association.
BY TED GRIGGS |
Gene Therapy Making Comeback inTreating Melanoma and Parkinson's
New research into gene therapy has paid off with the first successful effort seen yet to fight cancer as well as two early-stage trials that point to a new method for treating Parkinson's disease.
Last month, a team of scientists at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in Bethesda revealed that they had successfully treated two out of 17 patients with advanced metastatic skin cancer using gene therapy techniques that modified their own immune cells.
By JOHN CARROLL |
HIPAA Compliance a Challenge for Providers
It takes just a few words to stop healthcare providers in their tracks — Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, better known as HIPAA.
No one piece of legislation has had a greater effect or has sparked more confusion than HIPAA.
"I was solely in private practice right when HIPAA hit," said Rhonda Wood, an expert in health law. The HIPAA reference and privacy manuals she has written dot local law offices and medical clinics.
By JEREMY PEPPAS |
International Myeloma Foundation Honors Shaughnessy
UAMS myeloma researcher John D. Shaughnessy, Jr., PhD, was honored recently by the International Myeloma Foundation as part of a team of scientists who established the first world repository for DNA collected from myeloma patients and family members.
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Holiday Cards Feature Some of Arkansas' Tiniest Babies
Holiday cards and note cards featuring some of the tiniest patients at the UAMS are on sale for the first time ever. The cards, which feature photographs of infants treated in the UAMS neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), are available for $10 for a pack of 10.
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Omnibalm Launches New Product
Balm Innovations, a UAMS BioVentures company, unveiled its newest skin cream, Omnibalm Cucumber Melon, late in October in Little Rock.
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Tomlinson Named National EMT of the Year
Arkansas Children's Hospital Angel One Transport EMT Sedley A. Tomlinson, NREMT-B, I/C, CCPST, is the recipient of the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians' Robert E. Motley National EMT of the Year Award.
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Beck Receives Endowed Chair
Arkansas native Cornelia Beck, PhD, RN, became the inaugural recipient of the Louise Hearn Chair in Dementia and Long-term Care at the UAMS Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging.
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Kadlubar Named Epidemiology Chairman at UAMS
The public relations and marketing departments of Arkansas Children's Hospital and the Arkansas Children's Hospital Foundation recently were honored for outstanding communications and creativity at the Arkansas Hospital Association Diamond Awards and Arkansas Chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators' Bronze Quill Awards, both held in Little Rock, according to Dan McFadden, APR, director of communications.
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