NWA health care report shows progress, makes lofty recommendations
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Health care in Northwest Arkansas has made strides in the five years since expanding the industry became a front-and-center goal, but it has much more work to do.
Why it matters: The health care industry needs more of everything — workers, education, facilities — to keep up with the region's growing population and to serve the surrounding areas.
Driving the news: The Northwest Arkansas Council released a progress report yesterday five years after its 2019 report found the region was missing out on about $950 million a year because of NWA residents leaving for health care and not attracting patients from outside the region.
- This was largely because of a lack of specialty health care like cardiology.
What they found: The data in the new report suggests that more people are staying in NWA for health care, with about 6.3% of commercial insurance spending from NWA happening out of state in 2021 compared to 12.1% in 2018. For Medicare spending, it dropped from 8.2% to 6.7% during the same timeframe.
- Yes, but: The data does not include self-insured large companies like Walmart and Tyson Foods that make up about 25% of NWA's health care insurance market.
The big picture: NWA has put many of the recommendations in the 2019 report into motion, but it has a long way to go to being a health care destination.
- Developing a medical school and expanding graduate medical education were among the recommendations. Fast forward and the Alice L. Walton School of Medicine is set to open next year.
- Washington Regional Medical System and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences are also adding dozens of residencies, which are likely to keep doctors practicing here, in phases.
Some of the key recommendations in the new report include:
- Establishing a Level 1 trauma center led by Washington Regional and UAMS by 2030. Washington Regional's hospital in Fayetteville has the highest trauma rating in NWA at a 2, meaning its emergency department is best equipped to handle the most severe life-threatening injuries. The only Level 1 trauma centers in the state are UAMS and Arkansas Children's Hospital in Little Rock.
- Establishing a recruitment campaign in 2025 to attract and retain research-based subspecialty physicians, particularly in neurosurgery, cardiovascular surgery and pediatric specialties.
- Developing a health science high school and health care workforce and training simulation center to help with the health care worker pipeline.
- Advocating for increased reimbursement of state and federal rates for health care providers and facilities so health care workers are paid well and therefore easier to attract and keep.
- Developing pilot programs over the next five years spearheaded by the council and Heartland Whole Health Institute to explore transitioning from fee-for-service models to value-based care systems, which emphasize patient outcomes and the quality of services rather than the volume of procedures performed.