LITTLE ROCK — A satellite clinic for UAMS Health’s kidney and liver transplant patients in southwest Arkansas opens today at the UAMS Southwest Regional Campus in Texarkana.
Post-transplant follow-up care will be provided at the clinic, located inside the existing UAMS Family Medical Center at 3417 U of A Way, on the fourth Friday of each month. The clinic will also provide pancreatic and cancer evaluation and care; management of disorders of the bile ducts; and care for liver failure and liver dysfunction.
“UAMS brings to our hometown the finest and most up-to-date care for patients requiring organ transplant and post-transplant care,” said Russell Mayo, M.D., director of the regional campus in Texarkana. “Before now, this care was only available to large metropolitan centers.”
Earlier this month, UAMS opened a satellite clinic for transplant patients at its Northeast Regional Campus in Jonesboro. In early 2019, UAMS opened its first satellite clinic for transplant patients on its Northwest Regional Campus in Fayetteville.
“Due to the incredible work of the regional programs, we have been able to better care for patients in their home communities,” said Lyle Burdine, M.D., Ph.D., surgical director for the solid organ transplant program at UAMS. “The Northwest Arkansas clinic has been very successful, and our patients really enjoy being cared for in their community. Patients in the Jonesboro and Texarkana areas have been wanting to be seen in their region for some time, and we are very excited to be able to help them.”
UAMS physicians will travel to the Fayetteville clinic on the first Friday of each month, to Jonesboro every second Friday and to Texarkana every fourth Friday.
UAMS hopes to eventually offer pre-transplant care, such as testing to determine whether a patient is medically suitable for a transplant, at the satellite clinics.
UAMS is the home of the only adult liver and kidney transplant programs in the state. Both programs received high national rankings in January from the Scientific Registry of Transplant Patients, which evaluates the status of the nation’s solid organ transplant system. The registry gave the kidney transplant program its highest ranking of five bars in two categories – the speed of obtaining donors and patient survivability one year after transplant. UAMS’ liver transplant programs was one of only 10 programs nationwide to which the registry awarded four bars in both categories.