Texarkana native honored in Conway
CONWAY, Ark. — For Dr. Casey Smolarz and his staff at the emergency room of Baptist HealthConway, being properly trained has helped them prepare for a crisis such as COVID-19.
“We continue to prepare for it on a daily basis,” Smolarz said. “I feel like we are very prepared to take on the influx of patients.
“We have a triage outside to help decrease exposure to patients who are in the emergency department. If they have flu-like symptoms, they are seen in the ambulance bay by a physician and are either treated or tested (for COVID-19) based on the (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and Department of Health guidelines.”
Smolarz grew up in Texarkana, graduating from Pleasant Grove High School in 1999. He graduated from Rhodes College in Memphis in 2003 with a bachelor’s degree in biology. He went to medical school in Galveston, Texas, and did his residency at UAMS. He said he wanted to come back to Central Arkansas because he still has family in the area.
“I always wanted to live close to my family,” he said. “My parents still live in Texarkana, and I wanted to be close to my brothers. It was important to me to be located close by.
He said he meets by phone with the Baptist-Conway leadership team twice a day to discuss the updates that the Department of Health puts out and “how we are going to continue to prepare.” He said it does take a few days to get the test results back, and those patients are then contacted by the Department of Health. Smolarz said it hasn’t been too stressful for the most part.
“This is what we are trained to do,” Smolarz said. “Everybody is ready and prepared to take care of these patients.
“The community has been great and very supportive of us, which helps the morale of the whole department.”
Smolarz, the emergency room medical director at Baptist Health-Conway, was named Physician of the Year by the Conway Area Chamber of Commerce at the fourth annual North Metro Healthcare Awards on Feb. 20.
“It was, honestly, a tremendous honor,” Smolarz said. “As many different positions and providers in the medical community that we have, to be given this award, it was a true honor.”
Smolarz has been the medical director for the emergency room since it opened in September 2016. He is technically an employee of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock, as UAMS has the contract to provide the positions and providers for the emergency department at Baptist-Conway.
“I wanted to get into community practice after being in the academic setting for several years,” Smolarz said. “I wanted to broaden my skills and provide care to the community.
“Conway really needed that second hospital to provide care to the patients. I enjoy the interaction with patients and the staff, and I enjoy taking care of patients and then seeing them out in the community once they have gotten better.”
When Smolarz finished his residency at UAMS in 2010, he stayed on as faculty in the emergency department there.