We have four types of call at UAMS: UAMS/VA/PRI (Psychiatric Research Institute) Call, Short call, Arkansas State Hospital (ASH) call, and Arkansas Children's Hospital (ACH) call.

UAMS/VA/PRI call

On this call, formerly referred to as ‘beeper call’, residents are available by pager and cover three hospitals (UAMS, VA and the PRI). This call is in house call and the hours are 4:30pm - 7am on Fridays and 7 – 7 shifts on Saturday am, Saturday pm and Sunday am. The rest of the week is covered by night float which is a rotation that residents do during their PGYII year.

On average, you will receive 3-4 calls from the UAMS E.R. and 3-6 calls from the VA E.R. Sometimes one will receive a call through the switchboard regarding a suicidal clinic patient easily directed to the ER and even more rarely there will be a capacity evaluation on the floor. The PRI is our IP psychiatric unit and residents are responsible for covering “prn” calls from these 4 units. At full capacity there are 40 beds. There are on average 8-12 calls per shift for comfort meds, these are usually handled over the phone. When a consult comes in from the ER, one’s job is to perform a safety assessment, not to explore defense mechanisms and childhood relationships. You can expect to spend about an hour per call and all patients are checked out over the phone with attending physicians who are very supportive and known to drive up to the ER themselves in the middle of the night and troubleshoot if we run into problems.

Interns currently take approximately 18 -20 beeper calls per year, second year residents have approximately 5-6 beepers per year, third year residents work approximately 3-4 beepers per year, and fourth year residents do not take beeper call.

Short call

This call is in-house starting at 4:30pm and ending at 7pm on Mondays – Thursdays only. At 7pm, the resident on the night float rotation comes in to get the pager from you. This call covers all three hospitals just like beeper call and the number of consults ranges anywhere from 1-4. You complete the consults that you have started and if there are some that you aren’t able to complete, they are passed off to the night float resident. Usually the resident on short call is able to complete the consults that came in on their shift and don’t stay too long after 7pm completing their work.

Currently, PGY1’s have 10 short calls and PGY3’s have 16 short calls per year. This call is 2.5 hours and acts as the bridge between the end of the day for the consult resident and start of the day for the night float resident.

State Hospital and Children's Hospital call

There are two other types of call within our program: The Arkansas State Hospital and Arkansas Children’s Hospital. We are actually PAID for working these shifts and they are assigned on a voluntary basis. Moreover, even though this is technically “moonlighting”, it does not require a medical license or malpractice insurance. All residents, PGY I-IV are eligible to moonlight at the Arkansas State Hospital and years II-IV are eligible to work at Arkansas Children’s Hospital.

Arkansas State Hospital

Weekday shifts are from 5PM-8AM. Residents are responsible for taking calls for general nursing concerns (PRNs, Seclusion, Restraints etc) as well as up to 4 new admissions (the average number of admissions on a weeknight is one to two). There is a very nice call room that has a private bathroom, TV, DVD, VCR, computer with internet connection, and video game system along with a very comfortable recliner. Residents are also permitted to have visitors, spouses, partners, friends while on call. Residents work from 5PM-10PM in-house and then are permitted to leave the hospital and finish their shift from home, available by beeper.  Weeknight shifts are paid $300. (Saturdays and Sundays are split into two $300 shifts 8AM-8PM and 8PM-8AM). On weekends, it is in house until 10pm. There is always an attending on call should the resident need assistance with something while on call.

Arkansas Children’s Hospital

Residents are paid $50 on weekdays and $100 on weekends to carry the pager and make themselves available at home.  Consults are placed primarily from the ER, but also from the floor and are paid $125 per consult. At times, we are asked to follow up on patients that have already been evaluated by the day consult team and for follow up notes we are paid $75. Consults take about an hour and, again, are primarily safety assessments. Each consult is staffed over the phone with an attending physician.

There are many residents in our program who are interested not in the extra money they might make, but in the extra time that they are able to spend with their families given the favorability of our required call schedule.