UAMS Topping Out Ceremony

It's out with the old and in with the new for UAMS, as it moves towards completion of a new hospital and a Psychiatric Institute, that will be one of only a few in the country. Because health matters, it was a double topping out Thursday morning, with white beams, signed by UAMS employees, raised onto what will be a new hospital wing, and the new Psychiatric Research Institute.

When complete, UAMS' Psychiatric Institute will be able to provide in-patient care with 40 beds that Arkansas doesn't have right now.

The institute will also have eating disorder programs, research labs and specialized psychiatric help for teenagers.

"It's quite unusual to have this.  There's not another Psychiatric Research Institute in the central part of the country.  Most of them are on each coast," Dr. Richard Smith said, with the UAMS Dept. of Psychiatry.

For the expanded hospital, UAMS leaders say they'll be solving two problems.

"Most days we're not able to get all the patients in the hospital who need to come here, second is really the quality of the space.  It was opened in 1956 and semi-private rooms are too small for privates," Richard Pearson said, Executive Director of UAMS Medical Center.

Pearson says the new hospital will have about 300 all-private rooms, and include big changes for the nursery.

"What we're moving to is a nursery that's all-private rooms.  Not only be able to accommodate the care of the baby, but the family will be able to stay with the baby in the private room," Pearson added.

Both the expanded hospital and Psychiatric Research Institute should be ready for patients in January 2009.