[title subtitle=”WORDS and IMAGES courtesy Words and images courtesy Alicia Agent, Director Marketing Communications, Baptist Health – Fort Smith”][/title]
It’s been a year since Baptist Health officially assumed operations of Sparks Health System’s two hospitals in Fort Smith and Van Buren, plus affiliated clinics across the area. Baptist Health has made important strides in building up the region so it can serve the community with quality patient-centered services and deliver on Baptist Health’s mission of responding to the changing health needs ofresidents with Christian compassion and personal concern.
“We returned the state’s first hospital to its roots of being a not-for-profit organization and added a faith-based focus in all our facilities,” said Harrison Dean, president of the Baptist Health Western Region.This year, Baptist Health expanded its reach into the community by participating in nearly 100 events and impacting more than 9,000 residents. From providing educational seminars and free flu shots for citizens to sponsoring events across the River Valley in effort to lift up other nonprofits and spread awareness, the system strived to become a vital resource for its new neighbors.
Baptist Health also invested financially in people, equipment and technology for its facilities in western Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma. A new electronic health record system was implemented across Baptist Health hospitals and clinics to better ensure the safety and privacy of patients. Baptist Health-Fort Smith also revived its free childbirth and breastfeeding education classes for all local mothers and implemented a safe sleep program for infants, which provides education for parents and Halo Sleep Sacks to all babies born at Baptist Health-Fort Smith to reduce the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
Harrison recalls a meeting with all of the leaders of the various departments of the hospitals and clinics on the second day of Baptist Health assuming operations. He opened the meeting with a prayer. As a faith-based organization, starting meetings with a prayer is a custom at Baptist Health. Afterward, someone asked if it was OK to open all meetings with prayer and to pray with patients.
“The answer was, ‘Yes, we encourage it but don’t demand it, and that it really depends on the comfort level of the person,’” Dean said. “Since that first week, it has been uplifting to see that prayer within our facilities has spread like wildfire.”
“Once you realize other organizations don’t have the freedom to pray like we do throughout Baptist Health, it’s very humbling to be able to come in and make such a change for our employees and our patients.”
As Baptist Health plans for 2020, Harrison said increasing access to care and recruiting physicians to this area will be a primary goal. “Physicians are in scarce supply, and there’s a tremendous opportunity here as far as patients needing their services,” Dean said. “Our focus is to recruit across many specialties to meet the needs in the region.”
Harrison notes the organization has also worked hard to ensure adequate staffing to serve the community by reducing the vacancy rate of nurses in Fort Smith and Van Buren hospitals. This year, Baptist Health opened a satellite clinic to provide additional specialty services to residents of Crawford County, as well as an urgent care clinic with extended hours in Fort Smith, in effort to increase access to health care.
“More than anything else Baptist Health has done, the past year has been an opportunity to bring hope back into the community and the organization and show that Baptist Health is an owner-operator that is really focused on patients and how to serve the community,” Harrison said.
Baptist Health – Fort Smith Van Buren
1001 Towson Avenue
Fort Smith, Arkansas
479.441.400
