HJAR Jan/Feb 2023

62 JAN / FEB 2023  I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF ARKANSAS Hospital Rounds healthcare team for initial and ongoing educa- tion, consultation, and referral of patients who are under 18 and have behavioral health needs. The pediatric mental healthcare team will con- sist of a child and adolescent psychiatrist, a pedi- atric psychologist, and a care manager. The team will work with a curriculum specialist and a diverse, interdisciplinary educational team to develop the curriculum and conduct sessions using a network- based learning and guided practice model for medical education. “Pediatric mental and behavioral health is a pan- demic in this country. With this large, four-year grant, UAMS and Arkansas Children’s can start to develop the best approaches to enable primary care providers to detect issues earlier and treat and refer more efficiently in order to make a real and lasting impact for society,” said William J. Steinbach, MD, chair of the Department of Pedi- atrics and associate dean for child health in the UAMS College of Medicine and pediatrician-in- chief at Arkansas Children’s. Arkansas Children’s will serve as the program manager in collaboration with the UAMS Col- lege of Medicine Department of Psychiatry and the Arkansas Department of Health. The Health Resources and Services Administra- tion of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently awarded the grant funds as part of its ongoing effort to help providers improve access to pediatric mental health services for people who are uninsured, isolated, or medically vulnerable. “This program will allow us to set up much- needed support for primary care providers around the state who are the first point of contact for many of these children,” said Chris E. Smith, MD, professor and vice chair for primary care in the UAMS College of Medicine Department of Pedi- atrics and medical director of primary care services at Arkansas Children’s. He will serve as principal investigator for this grant. The initial group of providers targeted through CHAMP will be those in practices that are a part of the Arkansas Children’s Care Network (ACCN), which has 30 pediatric practices and 160 general pediatricians in its network and plans to add an additional 100 family practice providers around the state. The CHAMP project will focus in its first year on building a foundation, including assembling and hiring staff, conducting a needs survey of pro- viders in the network, conducting patient focus groups, designing curriculum for sessions, and establishing a telehealth process. The second year will focus on analysis of the program’s first year’s results and expansion to additional practices; the third year, consolidation and expansion; and the fourth year, sustainabil- ity, including expansion of the program to addi- tional community providers. Nathan Voise, DO, Joins CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs announced that gas- troenterology hospitalist Nathan Voise, DO, has joined the hospital's team of healthcare profes- sionals providing a comprehensive range of gas- trointestinal services. Voise joined CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs from National Park Medical Center. He earned a Doc- tor of Osteopathic Medicine degree from Okla- homa State University Center for Health Sciences in Tulsa and is board-certified in gastroenterology and internal medicine by the American Osteo- pathic Board of Internal Medicine. CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs Receives $4MGrant to Improve Rural Maternity Healthcare Access CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs will work to improve access to vital, high-quality prenatal care for preg- nant women across 11 Southwest Arkansas coun- ties thanks to a $4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services over the next four years. The grant will empower CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs to build upon the current Healthy Mom, Thriving Baby Project by estab- lishing AR MOMS, a network of committed, rural healthcare partners to coordinate a continuum of pregnancy services from pre-conception through postpartum care. The program aims to decrease high-risk pregnancy rates across the 6,900-square- mile target area, increase access to obstetric care, promote wellness, and interrupt cycles of health inequity that lead to Arkansas’ exceptionally high rates of infant and maternal mortality. “Residents in many of these counties cur- rently have limited or no access to prenatal and maternity care resources. On top of that, commu- nities struggle with food insecurity, poverty and limited access to technology among other chal- lenges,” said CHI St. Vincent Hot Springs Presi- dent Douglas Ross, MD. “We want to interrupt those cycles and make sure these babies and their mothers have the best start possible. CHI St. Vincent has the long-standing relationships with Southwest Arkansas’ rural providers and now the resources necessary to take that work to the next level.” In 2021, Arkansas reported the second-high- est infant mortality rate in the nation with 7.5 deaths per 1,000 births. Maternal mortality was also near the worst nationally at 28.9 deaths per 1,000, but that number nearly doubles for non-His- panic Black Arkansas women. Currently, pregnant women in the program’s targeted areas who reach 28 weeks are deemed high risk simply by virtue of living in a rural area. The AR MOMS program will work with community partners to increase local access to care, ensure mothers can access risk- appropriate obstetric care near them up until at least 32 weeks and improve access to telemedi- cine across the 11 Southwest Arkansas counties, including Calhoun, Clark, Columbia, Dallas, Hot Spring, Howard, Montgomery, Ouachita, Pike, Polk, and Sevier counties. “One in three women in these areas receive no first trimester obstetric care at all. We have an opportunity here to decrease infant and mater- nal mortality rates by ensuring that they have access to appropriate prenatal care,” said Ross. “That also means improving lifelong outcomes for them, their families and everyone throughout these communities.” Over the past three years, approximately 5,000 mothers gave birth in the 11 counties targeted in the AR MOMS project. Decreasing the rate of high-risk pregnancies in the region could lead to millions of dollars in saved preterm birth costs that, combined with regional strategies, could be reinvested in the rural obstetric continuum of care to sustain accessible rural services in South- west Arkansas. The initiative is part of CHI St. Vin- cent’s broader mission to make the healing pres- ence of God known in our world by improving the health of the people it serves, especially those who are vulnerable. n