HJAR Jan/Feb 2022

24 JAN / FEB 2022  I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF ARKANSAS   Healthcare Briefs any symptoms at all. Hepatitis C is contagious through contact with an infected person’s blood or instruments contaminated with an infected person’s blood. Hepatitis C is spread mostly through injection drug use and rarely from sex- ual contact or mother to child in the womb. A blood test called an HCV antibody test is used to determine if someone has ever been infected with the illness. Those who test positive are given a follow-up HCV RNA test to determine if they are infectious and have chronic hepatitis C disease. Hepatitis C can be cured with medications that are effective in 95% of cases. Treatment is avail- able in the form of oral medication that is usually taken for eight to 12 weeks and may be covered by private insurance, federal insurance, Medi- care or Medicaid. In addition, those who have no insurance and/or financial hardships can receive assistance with medication treatments through application with pharmaceutical companies. Contact your doctor to make an appointment or seek appropriate medical care if you suspect you have hepatitis C. Testing is also available through your local county health unit. JamieMobley Joins ARcare as Senior Vice President of Marketing ARcare welcomes Jamie Mobley as senior vice president of marketing to lead its brand promise “Health for All” as the healthcare network contin- ues to grow in Arkansas, Mississippi and Kentucky. Initial responsibilities of the position include strengthening brand presence in all markets, clar- ifying messaging and communicating breadth of services. “As ARcare continues to grow our reach and abil- ity to care for more individuals and communities throughout our tri-state service area, we have a need to ensure we are able to clearly communicate ‘how’ we can help and ‘who’ we can help,” said Ste- ven Collier, MD, ARcare CEO. “Jamie is an engag- ing and competent leader. She has both the expe- rience and passion we need in this important role.” Beyond her professional accomplishments, Mob- ley contributes to community building in a wide array of current and former roles, including chair- man of the Arkansas State University-Beebe Devel- opment Council, board member of the Searcy Regional Economic Development Corporation, planning commissioner for the City of Searcy, board member of Unity Health’s Foundation and past board president of the Searcy Regional Cham- ber of Commerce. “I am honored to be a part of the ARcare team,” Mobley said. “The passion to serve communities and people was instilled in me early in my profes- sional career. I feel I’m getting to live that out every day at ARcare through the mission of this tremen- dous organization.” Huitt to Serve as BCMC InterimCEO Bradley County Medical Center has announced that Leslie Huitt, the current chief financial officer for the hospital, will be the interim CEO after the resignation of Steve Henson. Huitt, who will still conduct her regular duties as CFO in addition to serving as the interim CEO, steps in for Henson, who announced in late Octo- ber he’d be resigning to take a position at a hos- pital in Tennessee. A native of Hermitage, Arkan- sas, Huitt has been with BCMC since May of 2020. She is a certified public accountant and has nearly 20 years of accounting experience with more than eight years of time in management positions. “What I want people to know the most about me is that our mission of ‘providing superior care to every patient every time,’ is what drew me to Bradley County Medical Center,” Huitt said. “It is a mission that I will hold near and dear. Being from this community, born right here in this hospi- tal, I understand what BCMC means to our com- munity. I have a heart for the people and I am excited to serve here.” Prior to her post at BCMC, Huitt served as an auditor for the Division of Legislative Audit in Arkansas after she spent several years as the busi- ness manager and district treasurer for the Her- mitage School District. Huitt also spent a number of years as a teacher at Hermitage before becom- ing the business manager and district treasurer for the school district. Additionally, Huitt had a stint as an accountant at Murphy Oil Company before the positions in the Hermitage School District. Huitt is a 1998 graduate of Hermitage High School and graduated from the University of Arkansas-Monticello in 2002 with a Bachelor of Business Administration in Accounting. She then earned a Master of Business Administration from Harding University in 2006. Provider Joins Conway Regional Advanced PainManagement Heather H. Teague, APRN, has joined the Conway Regional Advanced Pain Management Center. Teague brings more than 10 years of experience as an APRN to the center, which assists patients with a wide range of disorders, including acute, chronic and cancer pain. She has joined the prac- tice of pain management specialists Heath McCa- rver, MD, Chris Maranto, MD, and Mikio Rana- han, MD. She holds a post master’s degree as a family nurse practitioner as well as a Master of Science in Nursing, both from the University of Central Arkansas in Conway. Teague also has a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Arkansas Tech Univer- sity in Russellville. Conway Regional Advance Pain Management is located at 2200 Ada Ave., Suite 301 on the Con- way Regional Medical Center campus. $1.5 MGrant Funds Study of Impact of Maternal Diabetes on Fetal Neurodevelopment Researchers at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) hope to gain important insights about fetal neurodevelopment in a new study with diabetic pregnant mothers. Funded by a four-year, $1.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the study will use advanced fetal monitoring techniques Heather H. Teague, APRN