Our residency program is based at three major hospitals in Central Arkansas: a world-class university hospital, a large, complex Veterans Affairs Medical Center located adjacent to the university hospital, and one of the largest freestanding children’s hospitals in the United States. Residents also complete rural rotations at Washington Regional Medical Center in Northwest Arkansas and Unity Health-White County Medical Center in East Central Arkansas. Clinical rotations across these sites range from four to eight weeks.
UAMS Medical Center
The UAMS Medical Center is a 490-bed tertiary care medical center and the flagship hospital of the residency program. The current hospital opened in January of 2009 and includes 22 state-of-the-art operating rooms. The majority of the full-time faculty practice at UAMS and most of the resident activities are centered on this campus. This hospital serves as a state-wide referral center for trauma, transplantation, and complex oncologic and general surgical cases. At UAMS, residents gain experience in general and acute care surgery, vascular and endovascular surgery, surgical oncology, transplantation, thoracic surgery, plastic surgery and surgical critical care.
John L. McClellan Memorial Veterans Hospital
John L. McClellan Memorial Veterans Hospital is a 280-bed tertiary VA medical center that is contiguous to the UAMS campus. This medical center has 500,000 outpatient visits each year, making it one of the larger VA health care systems in the country. At CAVHS the residents are supervised by five full-time faculty surgeons and a number of surgeons who have dual appointments shared between the VA and UAMS. At the CAVHS, our residents learn to care for patients with basic and complex general, vascular and thoracic surgical diseases such as abdominal wall hernias, GI malignancies, abdominal aortic aneurysms, peripheral vascular occlusive disease, and lung cancer.
Arkansas Children’s Hospital
Arkansas Children’s Hospital (ACH) is the statewide pediatric referral center and the center for excellence in pediatric care for the state of Arkansas. This 336-bed hospital is one of the largest standalone children’s hospitals in the United States. Our pediatric surgery service performs over 2400 cases per year. Our pediatric surgery residents average between 1000 and 1400 operative cases during their fellowship. Our state-of-the-art Neonatal Intensive Care Unit currently has 90 beds (and is expanding) and provides a good mix and volume of neonatal index cases. As one of two hospitals in the only pediatric health system in our state (population 2.7 million), Arkansas Children’s Hospital (ACH) serves as “the” tertiary pediatric facility in Arkansas with two full-time helicopters, a fixed-wing aircraft and several ground transport units.
Washington Regional Medical Center
Washington Regional Medical Center opened as Washington County Hospital in 1950 as an acute care facility with 50 beds on the corner of College Avenue and North Street in Fayetteville, Arkansas. In August 2002, the current Washington Regional Medical Center opened with 233 beds and 345,000 square feet of space on Northhills Boulevard. Since that time, the medical center has grown to more than 724,000 square feet and is licensed for 425 beds.
Unity Health-White County Medical Center
As the leading healthcare provider in a six-county area, Unity Health associates strive to improve the quality of health and well-being for the communities it serves through compassionate care. Unity Health – White County Medical Center is the largest employer in a six-county area with more than 1,750 associates. The facility has a combined total of 438 licensed beds and a medical staff of 150 physicians that specialize in various areas of healthcare.