Encore Medical Center in Bryant, Ark., will join Little Rock-based University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences Health after the University of Arkansas board of trustees approved the system’s plan to lease and operate the facility.
Encore Medical Center, a 53-licensed-bed, 108,055-square-foot hospital, opened in 2021 with a focus on bariatric weight loss surgery and peripheral vascular disease, according to a June 24 news release.
Arkansas Heart Hospital currently operates the facility and will continue to do so through Sept. 30. UAMS expects to assume full operational control Oct. 1.
UAMS leaders said the move will expand access to care in Saline County, one of Arkansas’ fastest-growing areas. According to World Population Review data cited by UAMS, the county’s population has increased 25% since 2010, adding more than 27,000 residents.
“UAMS cannot currently meet patient demand at our main campus,” Chancellor C. Lowry Barnes, MD, said in the release. “These additional beds are critical to our mission of caring for the sickest patients in Arkansas.”
The hospital includes emergency services, inpatient medical-surgical beds, intensive care, surgical suites, diagnostic imaging and laboratory services.
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