HJAR Mar/Apr 2022

62 MAR / APR 2022  I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF ARKANSAS Hospital Rounds Methodist Family Health Adds Smith, Englert-Jessen to Team Methodist Family Health recently promoted Amanda Bolls Smith, CFRE, to executive director of Methodist Family Health Foundation, and hired Eva Englert-Jessen as its director of pastoral care. Smith has more than two decades of fundrais- ing and nonprofit work in Arkansas. She recently achieved certification as a fundraising executive and was formerly the director of development at Methodist Family Health Foundation. She has a bachelor’s from Hendrix College in Conway. Englert-Jessen is a third-generation clergy- woman in the United Methodist Church. In June 2021, she became an ordained deacon in the Methodist church, and she has a Master of Divin- ity from Boston University School of Theology and a bachelor’s degree from Hendrix College in Conway. Baptist Health Surgeon Offering Minimally Invasive Heart Surgery Baptist Health’s newest cardiothoracic sur- geon, Bryan Barrus, MD, is utilizing a new mini- mally invasive procedure he helped develop to implant HeartMate III devices in advanced heart failure patients. “Instead of implanting HeartMate pumps through a traditional sternotomy, we are now going in between the ribs — one incision on the left side and one on the right side to connect to the heart and aorta,” Barrus said of the technique. Baptist Health first introduced the HeartMate to Arkansas in 1999. Now in its third genera- tion, the HeartMate III has the ability to assist the performance of the left side of the heart. Implanting a HeartMate III using this new pro- cedure decreases the length of stay between 30 to 50% and decreases the chances of death. It also speeds up recovery time from six months to around two months. “To see patients go home in as little as four days, it’s incredible,” Barrus said. Barrus recently transferred to Baptist Health from University of Rochester Medical Center/ Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, where he helped develop this technique. Barrus received a medical degree from Penn State College of Medicine and completed ortho- paedic and cardiothoracic residency training at the University of Rochester in Rochester, N.Y. He is board-certified by the American Board of Tho- racic Surgery. Two NewMembers Join the Arkansas Children’s Foundation Board of Directors Two new members have joined the Arkansas Children’s Foundation (ACF) Board of Directors. They are Trisha Montague and Jennifer Yurachek. Montague and Yurachek join 35 ACF board members who represent statewide communities served by Arkansas Children’s. Both were elected to three-year board terms, beginning Jan. 1, 2022. Montague, MSN, RN, NEA-BC, who retired in April as executive vice president and interim chief operating officer at Arkansas Children’s, held the executive responsibility for operational leadership and day-to-day system operations. In October of 2015, Montague was hired as senior vice presi- dent and inaugural chief administrator with the responsibility of overseeing Arkansas Children’s Northwest, its leadership and its strategic plan for pediatric healthcare in the Northwest Arkan- sas community. Prior to joining Arkansas Children’s in 2015, Montague served as chief nursing officer at Chil- dren’s Hospital of San Antonio. She began as a nurse and spent her entire career in pediatric healthcare, working in different hospitals across the country. Yurachek has worked in marketing and public relations with a degree in speech communications as well as radio, communications, and motion pic- tures. She’s actively involved in the Northwest Arkansas community where she is a member of Fayetteville High School’s Booster Club; is a mem- ber of the Philanthropy Club, which is a group of community advocates and philanthropists who work to learn more about local nonprofits to bet- ter understand the needs of the Northwest Arkan- sas community; does volunteer work for Cancer Support Home; and has served on the American Cancer Society of Arkansas’s Suits & Sneakers Gala committee. Arkansas Children’s Hospital Auxiliary’s Matching Fund Drive Garners Support for ChildMaltreatment The 2021 Miracle Ball Matching Fund Drive, a shared project of Arkansas Children’s Hospital Auxiliary and Arkansas Children’s Foundation, raised more than $848,000 benefiting Arkansas Children’s Hospital. Local philanthropists Jacqueline and Michael Retzer matched every donation, dollar-for-dollar up to $250,000. Bryan Barrus, MD Trisha Montague, MSN, RN, NEA-BC Jennifer Yurachek