HJAR Jul/Aug 2026

HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF ARKANSAS I  JUL / AUG 2026 15 in charge of developing their patient-first culture and did an outstanding job with it. Toby was totally committed to it. Dr. Mer- lino is actually coming in next week and will spend time with us, have a dinner with us, and help us continue this program. As I said, we’re doing their book club, and I’m part of the book club now, and both Dr. Merlino and Dr. Cosgrove were going to be a participant in one of the sessions. They’ll be discussing their books with us. So that’ll be an added benefit for the members of our book club. I think it’ll just help us get further and fur- ther down this pathway to be the friendliest healthcare provider in the region. Editor Give an example of how that has translated. Barnes Howwe go above and beyond? Sure. So we talked about the hot dog story from the Unreasonable Hospitality book. We had a patient who was in the hospital who the team overheard her telling folks how upset she was because she was going to miss Easter. She was going to be in the hospital over Easter weekend. And one of the reasons she [was so upset] was because she enjoyed being with her grandchildren and doing an Easter egg hunt. And so the team surprised her and had her grandchildren come there on Easter and had a special Easter egg hunting session for her and her grandchildren and her children. So, something you wouldn’t expect in most hospitals. The team heard this and went above and beyond to make it happen and that’s who we want to be. Editor There are many ways to heal, and I think many people leave that element out. They are looking at the body, but not always at the kindness, the attentiveness, and the way people watch out for each other in the process. Barnes No doubt about it. And this whole UAMS Cares initiative is not just about the patients and their families; it is also about how we treat each other at the institution. I think we will become the place where everybody wants to work. If you’re in healthcare, you’ll want to work at UAMS because it will be a place where people get along well, where they know they are making a difference, and where they see their patients and their family members smiling because they’ve done something nice for them. It will be contagious and folks will want to be a part of it. Editor I love that contagious part. Healthcare workforce shortages are one of the biggest issues facing Arkansas. How do we address that? Barnes Well, we continue to grow our classes when we can. For instance, our physician assistant program is extremely competitive. We take 40 students a year and we have over 600 applicants for those 40 positions. We are going to 60 per year, which is a significant undertaking. It takes two years to get approval to do this, but we’ll grow that program. We are growing some accelerated BSN programs so that students who have a bachelor’s degree who want to become nurses can do so quicker and less expensively than in the past. We are starting a really interesting pro- gram, somewhat novel for medical students, that will have a six-year program. They’ll start at the University of Arkansas at Fay- etteville for two years and then transition to UAMS. They’ll be guaranteed admission to medical school as part of this program as freshmen in college. So when they finish, they’ll have both a bachelor’s and an MD. Editor From where you sit, what are the most urgent healthcare problems facing the state? Barnes Access, rural hospitals’ financial challenges, urban hospitals’ financial challenges. I could list a hundred, right? But I think that right now, we have so many people who need tertiary-level care from other hospitals that we have to figure out howwe can provide access to those patients. We made significant gains, a year before last . . . we accepted 2,600 patients and transfers from other hospitals. So the goal maybe — before I started — was to take that to 3,000. We already passed that and we will probably accept 4,000 transfers to UAMS from other hospitals this year, which is incredible to go from 2,600 to 4,000 in a year. The challenge, however, is we have almost that many who we could not accept. So we have to figure out how to expand beds and that’s another reason to grow. Our state needs us to grow to take care of these patients who many have significant problems that can only be treated at UAMS, or are best treated at UAMS. The challenge in rural healthcare is sig- nificant. We are working with a number of rural hospitals now and trying to under- stand their challenges, see how we [can] work with them to help them. And the Med- icaid changes that are coming are going to be difficult for all of us. The reimbursement levels are going to be challenging and so, we’re going to have to look at new models of care and howwe can deliver appropriate care at a reimbursement rate that is too low for that care. Editor Well, plus you’re hit with a lower rate anyway than what they have in Boston. Barnes No doubt about it. We have the lowest Medicare rates in the country and many of the other rates follow suit, unfortunately. Editor And yet you pay the same amount for equipment, I’m sure. Barnes Same amount for equipment and not much different for our employees either. Before COVID, there was probably a more significant difference in regional costs to provide care than there is now.