By HEATHER HARTSELL
Leader staff writer
Area residents have a number of choices when it comes to hospital-related medical needs whether for emergency medical care, acute inpatient care or ancillary services. They can choose from among Rebsamen Medical Center in Jacksonville, which serves north Pulaski and Lonoke counties; White County Medical Center in Searcy, St. Vincent Medical Center/North in Sherwood, or Baptist Health Medical Center in North Little Rock. Each hospital offers unique services for their patients.
Rebsamen Medical Center in Jacksonville has served residents north of Little Rock since 1962 and has grown in size and number of programs and services over the years as the population of the area has grown and the needs of that population have changed. Its most recent addition is Inspirations, an outpatient counseling center located at the medical center, which held its grand opening and ribbon-cutting last week.
Inspirations puts its clients on the path to emotional and mental well-being by providing outpatient therapeutic counseling services to patients in a comfortable, home-like environment. “There is no other company in the state that provides these services under one roof,” Jennifer Love, community education liaison with Rebsamen said.
Inspiration’s services are especially designed for seniors but Love said anyone can call in a referral or come in, regardless of age, if they have feelings of grief, anxiety, thoughts of death, sadness, loneliness or hopelessness. “We’re open to nearly anybody. Any Medicare Part B recipients are eligible to participate,” Love said. To stay competitive, hospitals must constantly upgrade and modernize. Rebsamen’s medical imaging department now offers top-of-the-line Philips Ultrasound and Philips Brilliance CT Scanner and has a three-room mammography suite. The CT scanner provides fast, high-quality 3-D images and enables physicians to shorten exam time, see results in minutes, lessen the dose of X-ray energy for the patient, and can accommodate larger patients, according to Kristen James, marketing coordinator at Rebsamen.
“With the new CT scanner, our doctors are able to rapidly and definitively assess the condition of trauma cases so they can make important decisions within the critical first few minutes after a patient arrives in the emergency room,” James said.
Rebsamen’s surgeons also have the assistance of the Depuy Intelligent Orthopedic System, a computer program that tells the surgeon the precise places to make the cut during knee-replacement surgery.
“Rebsamen is fortunate to be one of the few centers in Arkansas, in fact the United States, to already utilize the Depuy Orthopedic System,” James said. Last June, Rebsamen again expanded its services for Lonoke County residents with the opening of the 13,000-square-foot addition to the Cabot Medical Park, which included Cabot Imaging Center, Cabot Physical Rehabilitation and Cabot Medical Park Pharmacy.
Rebsamen also features 24-hour emergency-room services (which last year saw more than 20,000 patients); intensive care and coronary care units, inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation services, geriatric psychiatric services, outpatient psychiatric counseling, women’s health services including obstetrics, a sleep disorder clinic, home health services and a state-of-the art wound healing center.
The education center offers diabetes and Alzheimer support groups, addiction and recovery support and programs for families expecting a baby. Rebsamen also has a state-licensed childcare center for employees and members of the community. This is one of a series of stories on access to medical care.
