UAMS News Syndication Block

July 14, 2026 | LITTLE ROCK — The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) and Mena Regional Health System are planning to sign a co-management agreement, pending final approval by the Arkansas Department of Health. The agreement was approved on Tuesday night by the Mena City Council and the Mena Hospital Commissioners.

Under the agreement, Mena Regional Health System will retain its assets, operations, and oversight of the hospital. No immediate changes to patient services, hospital staff, or daily operations will result from the agreement. This agreement will bring increased access to UAMS’s world-class specialists, academic programs, and clinical research in addition to assisting the hospital in identifying opportunities to improve daily operations.

UAMS and Mena Regional have collaborated for years on several key clinical and educational projects aimed at expanding specialized care and improving health in the Mena area. The Mena Regional Health System serves as an official UAMS Milk Bank Depot, allowing screened donors to drop off breast milk that is then pasteurized by UAMS for use by premature and ill infants. UAMS provides Mena Regional providers with remote access to specialized expertise through telemedicine. UAMS Regional Campuses host Mini-MASH (Medical Applications of Science for Health) camps for local high school students at Mena Regional.

UAMS and Mena Regional also work closely with the University of Arkansas at Rich Mountain (UARM) to expand local healthcare career pathways, enhance rural clinical training, and improve community health services. UARM nursing and allied health students complete their hands-on clinical training at Mena Regional.

“At UAMS, we are committed to collaborating with community hospitals to ensure Arkansans have access to high-quality care close to home,” said UAMS Chancellor C. Lowry Barnes, M.D. “This co-management agreement with Mena Regional Health System strengthens our shared commitment to improving health outcomes in western Arkansas while enhancing access to the expertise, education and resources that UAMS can provide. We look forward to building on Mena Regional’s long history of serving its community and working together to meet the healthcare needs of the region.”

“This co-management agreement with UAMS reflects our commitment to ensuring that the people of Polk County and surrounding rural communities have access to high-quality health care close to home,” said Paul Ervin, chief executive officer of Mena Regional Health System. “Our mission is ‘Patients First Always,’ and this agreement will strengthen our ability to deliver on that promise by connecting our patients with the expertise, resources, and specialty care available through UAMS while continuing to provide the personalized care they expect from their local hospital.”

Mena Regional Health System, a municipal-owned Critical Access Hospital serving Polk County and the surrounding region, continues its longstanding mission of delivering high-quality, accessible healthcare close to home. Caring for the community since 1936 and operating as Mena Regional Health System since 2005, the organization remains dedicated to improving the health and well-being of the populations it serves through a broad spectrum of inpatient and outpatient medical services.

Mena Regional provides comprehensive inpatient care, including medical, surgical, obstetrical, nursery, swing bed, and geriatric psychiatric services. The hospital also supports a wide range of outpatient services designed to meet the diverse needs of the community, including radiological imaging, respiratory therapy, a sleep lab, outpatient physical therapy, laboratory services, infusion services, a rural health clinic, and a surgical clinic. In addition, the facility operates a 13-bed emergency department to ensure timely care for urgent medical needs.

UAMS is the state’s only health sciences university, with colleges of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Health Professions and Public Health; a graduate school; a hospital; a main campus in Little Rock; a Northwest Arkansas regional campus in Fayetteville; a statewide network of regional campuses; and seven institutes: the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute, Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute, Psychiatric Research Institute, Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging, Translational Research Institute, and the Institute for Community Health Innovation. UAMS includes UAMS Health, a statewide health system that encompasses all of UAMS’ clinical enterprise. UAMS is the only adult Level 1 trauma center in the state. UAMS has 3,553 students and 1,030 medical residents and fellows, and two dental residents. It is the state’s largest public employer with about 12,000 employees, including 1,200 physicians who provide care to patients at UAMS, its regional campuses, Arkansas Children’s, the VA Medical Center and Baptist Health. Visit www.uams.edu or uamshealth.com. Find us on Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), YouTube or Instagram.

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