Hospital

Richard Pierson Vice Chancellor of Clinical Programs, Executive Director of UAMS Medical Center

Hospital Expansion News

Our patient care - or clinical - programs, are vital to UAMS, and important to our continued success at completing our missions to teach, search, heal and serve.

The existing UAMS Medical Center is 50 years old and has become outdated alongside UAMS' other centers of excellence. Our programs have outgrown our walls and demand for services is only expected to increase in the future.

Growing student enrollment, significant increases in federal funding through grants and contracts and world-class programs that attract patients from across the United States and 34 foreign countries have put UAMS in a position to think about how best to meet the needs of its patients, educators and researchers in the future. Expanding our hospital and clinical facilities is important for maintaining our solid reputation for comprehensive care.

- Richard A. Pierson, M.B.A., M.H.A.
UAMS Vice Chancellor for Clinical Programs

The new 540,000-square-foot expansion to UAMS Medical Center, now under construction, will be located south of the current hospital.

Click here for artist renderings of the new hospital

When completed in 2009, the hospital will include new patient rooms, a new emergency department, clinical lab and radiology department along with room to expand other services.

In addition, the new facility will include additional surgical and interventional suites, along with larger intensive and intermediate care units.

The hospital expansion will include 234 private adult beds and 64 neonatal beds, along with 40 inpatient beds in the adjacent Psychiatric Research Institute for a total of 437 hospital beds. There also will be 25 beds in a short-stay unit and 32 private exam rooms in the new emergency department.

An adjacent new parking deck will have 1,000 spaces intended primarily for patients and visitors.