UAMS changes names of centers

The state’s medical school is renaming its eight Area Health Education Centers and their clinics around the state, it announced Monday.

The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences has operated the regional centers since 1973 as a way to train medical residents and provide clinical care and health education services throughout the state.

The Area Health Education Center name will be retained for regional parts of the centers’ education components, said spokesman Leslie Taylor and Dr. Mark Mengel, director of UAMS Regional Programs, because they are partly funded with federal grant money.

There are eight centers; six operate a combined nine primary-care clinics. Under the rebranding, the centers are named for their regions while most of the clinics are named for the city of location.

New names for the centers and their branch sites are: UAMS Northwest in Fayetteville and Springdale, UAMS West in Fort Smith, UAMS North Central in Batesville and Mountain Home, UAMS Northeast in Jonesboro, UAMS South Central in Pine Bluff, UAMS East in Helena-West Helena, UAMS Southwest in Texarkana, and UAMS South in El Dorado and Magnolia.

The clinics’ new names are: UAMS Family Medical Center Fayetteville; UAMS Family Medical Center Springdale; UAMS Family Medical Center Fort Smith; UAMS Family Medical Center Jonesboro; UAMS Family Medical Center Texarkana; UAMS Family Medical Center El Dorado; UAMS Family Medical Center Magnolia; and UAMS Family Medical Center Pine Bluff and the Justiss-Lindsey Clinic, both in Pine Bluff, Taylor said.

UAMS East and UAMS North Central operate only community health education programs.

The name changes took effect Monday.