Latest / Becker’s Healthcare Podcast / Expanding Access and Advancing Rural Health at Arkansas Children's with Jamie Wiggins

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Expanding Access and Advancing Rural Health at Arkansas Children's with Jamie Wiggins · Becker’s Healthcare Podcast

• 0:00
  Welcome to the Becker's Healthcare podcast. I'm Chris
• 0:02
  Sosa, your host, and I'm thrilled to be
• 0:03
  joined today by Jamie Wiggins. He's executive vice
• 0:06
  president and chief operations officer of Arkansas Children's.
• 0:10
  Jamie, thank you for joining us today. Thank
• 0:12
  you, Chris. Happy to be here. Yeah. It's
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  such a pleasure. So, Jamie, for those in
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  our audience who maybe are not too familiar
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  with yourself and your organization, could you please
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  let us know a little bit about both?
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  Absolutely. I am a pediatric nurse by background.
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  I've been in pediatric health care for thirty
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  years.
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  Held some various levels of executive leadership before
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  joining Arkansas Children's four and a half years
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  ago. We're the only pediatric health care system
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  in the state completely dedicated to kids.
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  We have two hospitals, five clinics, a research
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  institute, and a foundation,
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  and serve nearly 1,000,000 kids, 21 and younger
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  across our state.
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  Fantastic. Thanks for letting us know what Arkansas
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  Children is about and the breadth and and
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  scope that you guys cover, which is quite
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  a bit,
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  down in Arkansas.
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  First question I have for you, Jamie, is
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  this. So let's look a little bit back
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  at 2025.
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  So what would you say is the most
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  important initiative that you and the organization led
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  last year, and can you tell us the
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  results
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  and how it evolved?
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  Sure.
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  I think we've been in the middle of
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  a multiyear campus expansion project or really system
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  expansion project across our different sites of care.
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  But from an operational standpoint, what we really
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  focused on last year was creating a very
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  seamless front door for patients and families.
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  We know that we have the tertiary, quaternary,
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  full complement of services that kids in our
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  region need, but it wasn't always as easy
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  to get a scheduled appointment.
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  And so we really focused on template
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  optimization with our provider colleagues.
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  We focused on our technology access points to
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  make sure that it was streamlined so that
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  we could schedule appointments.
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  And what that really allowed us to do
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  is last year, we saw nearly 200,000 unique
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  patients, which was our most patients seen in
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  a given year in our history. So some
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  really great work that's happened there.
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  Jamie, in looking at that project, what would
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  you say you learned about
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  either yourself,
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  or learn about yourself, or learn about,
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  just what it takes to drive such an
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  initiative?
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  Yeah. You know, it always takes a big,
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  aspirational goal to figure out how you wanna
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  achieve culture change, but the reality is I
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  think I've learned it what I've always known
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  and reinforced. It happens at the front line.
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  It happens on those interactions with our leaders
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  and our front line team members and our
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  physicians,
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  and really making sure that we understand
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  what are the barriers
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  that have been created,
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  not on purpose, well meaning intended people, but
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  yet as our systems continue to get complex,
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  as we continue to respond and make sure
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  that we meet all of the regulatory requirements
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  for the care that we provide,
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  we sometimes make our system very hard to
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  navigate.
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  And so really making sure that we're engaging
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  all levels of the organization and really listening
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  for the frontline to understand what we can
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  do to make their job easier so that
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  we can align our goals.
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  Makes total sense. Thanks, Jamie. So as we
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  take that knowledge and we look ahead into
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  2026, we're a little bit into the year,
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  but still a lot to go. So what
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  would you say are the biggest priorities that
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  Arkansas Children's has? Any headwinds that you foresee
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  and even tailwinds that you're hoping can boost
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  you guys?
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  Well, I'm certainly hoping the access work that
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  we did last year will continue to be
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  a tailwind to help us move us forward
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  as we look to make sure that we
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  can take care of more kids this year.
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  I think what we have in common with
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  other organizations across the country is the talent
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  pipeline,
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  specifically around our physicians and our providers.
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  We know that across the country,
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  less people are going into pediatric subspecialties,
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  and so always making sure that we are
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  creating the kind of academic environment and clinical
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  environment that physicians would wanna choose,
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  as well as growing our pipeline
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  for our technical roles as well.
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  From a culture piece, as we look forward,
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  we're really calling ourself to excellence to really
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  focus on
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  a friendliest hospital mindset.
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  So, really, how do we make sure that
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  we are creating exceptional
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  customer service and patient care along the entire
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  trajectory
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  regardless if you interact with us in our
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  acute care tertiary service
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  or you interact with us on a telemedicine
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  visit. We wanna make sure that we are,
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  exceeding expectations and always we give care,
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  which has really,
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  been a motivating force for us to really
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  look at what we're doing and figure out
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  how we can equip our team members,
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  with the ability and the skill set and
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  the flexibility to make sure they deliver on
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  those expectations.
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  And so, we're excited about what the future
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  holds.
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  It's fantastic.
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  Let's
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  look at
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  a a little bit more about 2026.
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  So you have funding that you wanna get
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  done. No doubt.
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  So when you think about that,
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  what do you think is the hardest thing
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  you'll have to do in the coming year?
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  It doesn't mean you're not looking forward to
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  doing it, but you understand it's gonna take
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  a specific
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  and intense level of focus to accomplish that
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  goal.
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  Yeah. The one thing I would say that
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  kinda highlight is our focus on rural health
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  care.
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  It's really hard to do that work.
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  Over 50% of the children that live in
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  Arkansas live in rural communities.
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  Nationally, that percentage is around 12.
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  And so we have a huge calling
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  to figure out how we can get in
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  those communities,
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  which will require infrastructure and resources
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  that doesn't always align with current payer methodologies.
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  So we really are leaning into
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  our commitment to improve child health across the
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  state, and that obviously isn't gonna happen in,
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  you know, one year. That's gonna be a
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  multiyear focus that we continue to invest in,
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  but we're really excited about that work.
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  And for me, what I really am always
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  focused on is how do we deliver the
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  best care and the best environment
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  and make sure that we have
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  optimized the efficiency in the running of our
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  organization.
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  If any dollar that I can help, say,
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  from the delivery of care provides a dollar
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  that we can invest in the future for
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  rural health care.
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  That's
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  a perfect equation, I would say.
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  Let's look at
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  looking forward, you mentioned
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  infrastructure,
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  but I do wanna ask you not only
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  about that, but other opportunities you see for
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  growth. I mean, certainly,
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  as you mentioned, caring for kids
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  in Arkansas where 50%
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  of them live in rural areas, that that's
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  gonna take investment. Right? So where do you
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  see Arkansas children going with that next? Whether
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  it's the next year,
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  eighteen months, five years, what whatever timeline you
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  think is appropriate in this time.
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  Sure. Well, we just kicked off this past
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  July our new five year strategic plan. And
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  so we've kinda given ourselves a five year
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  runway to figure out how we will continue
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  to make a deep dent in improving rural
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  health care.
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  Our chief strategy officer and our strategy leadership
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  team has really,
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  will probably focus on chronic illness.
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  How do we create hubs that will allow
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  us to focus on the chronically ill in
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  our state to help with health care management?
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  So for one example would be diabetes.
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  Is there a way that we can make
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  sure we stay in constant contact in monitoring
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  of our diabetic patients
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  to really achieve some population health management
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  at a statewide level. So I think that's
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  one of the areas that you'll see us
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  kinda focus over the next couple years.
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  I think we have a lot of interest
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  as a lot of health care systems do
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  across the country to understand what the investment
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  in rural health care across the country will
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  be.
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  I think we've got a couple of projects,
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  for consideration. So hopefully, we'll be able to
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  start accelerating some of that work.
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  Terrific, Jamie. Thanks, Drew, for highlighting all those
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  efforts that you guys are working on. I
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  did wanna give a chance to highlight yet
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  another, and that is your National Center for
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  Opioid Research and Clinical Effectiveness.
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  I understand that the construction began in August,
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  and you plan to open in 2027.
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  What would you say is the progress on
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  that project right now? What are you most
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  proud of?
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  Yeah. So the National Center for Opioid Research
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  and Clinical Effectiveness is actually one component of
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  our overall expansion project across our system,
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  where we're adding 330,000
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  square feet. We're gonna renovate another 170,000
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  square feet and really invest over $370,000,000
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  across our system.
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  The National Center for Opioid Research actually got
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  its funding,
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  the partnership with the attorney general for the
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  state of Arkansas.
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  $50,000,000
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  of opioid settlement money
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  was put towards this effort followed by another
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  $5,000,000
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  of JUUL settlement money.
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  So we did do a topping out ceremony
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  just a few weeks ago. We'll be looking
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  to open that up in the 2027,
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  and it really is setting a national infrastructure
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  for us to actually study and understand
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  not only opioid impact on child health, but
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  also,
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  mothers and babies. And so we're really excited
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  to have one building that will actually bring
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  in our research, our clinical enterprise,
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  and a research institute center under one building
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  so we can really start to understand, address,
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  and hopefully prevent,
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  substance use disorder and opioids.
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  Yeah. It's very impressive and certainly important that
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  there's a facility to
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  research all
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  the disparate and different elements that, you know,
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  go into treating and understanding,
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  opioid disorders.
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  Jamie, you've been such a pleasure to have
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  on as a guest.
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  We're gonna see you, I hope, very soon
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  here at the Becker's Conferences or or in
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  just in the podcast space, wherever that may
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  be. Thank you again for joining us. I'm
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  looking forward to it. I appreciate the opportunity
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  to connect with you. Anytime I talk about
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  Arkansas Children's, I'm happy to do so.