Family Medicine Residency Rural Track Program (Berryville/Eureka Springs)

Family Medicine Residency Rural Track Program (Berryville/Eureka Springs)

What is a Rural Track Program?

Our Family Medicine rural track program is designed to give residents an in-depth experience practicing medicine in a rural setting, and our mission is to train physicians with an interest in meeting the health care needs in underserved rural communities.

A rural track program is a separately-accredited residency that works with an existing ‘urban’ residency program. Residents spend greater than 50% of their time on clinical rotations and didactic experiences at rural training sites. Like many rural training programs, our program is structured in a 1-2 format, with residents spending their first year in an urban hospital, doing clinical rotations and continuity clinic with residents in our partner urban program. Following the first year of training, our residents spend their second and third years training in rural hospitals and family medicine clinics.

Partners

Our program is paired with the UAMS Northwest Regional Campus Family Medicine Residency Program based in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

PGY-1 residents will train at Washington Regional Medical Center and conduct their continuity clinics at the UAMS Family Medical Center in Fayetteville.

PGY-2 and PGY-3 residents will spend most of their time in neighboring Carroll, Madison, and Boone Counties.

Mercy Hospital Berryville serves as the rural hospital, and residents will be assigned to the Washington Regional Eureka Springs Family Clinic or to the Mercy Clinic Family Medicine – Berryville for continuity clinic. Residents may also complete rotations with Boston Mountain Rural Health Center in Huntsville, a Federally-Qualified Health Center serving the region.

Program Information

Summary

The UAMS Northwest Family Medicine Rural Training Program is located in Fayetteville, Arkansas for the PGY-1 year and in nearby Carroll, Madison, and Boone Counties for PGY-2 and PGY-3. This rural training program was established in 2022 as a new community-based program through a partnership with UAMS, Washington Regional Medical Center, and Mercy. This family medicine residency program is designed to train residents in clinical reasoning, critical thinking, research, and providing the full-scope of family practice services to meet the health care needs of rural communities.

Mission Statement

Our mission is to strengthen the physician workforce for rural underserved communities and to support trainees and practitioners who have a passion for caring for underserved rural communities. As UAMS Regional Centers serves as our Sponsoring Institution, our RTP program mission is aligned with the following: UAMS Mission to improve the health, health care, and well-being of Arkansans and of others in the region, nation and the world by: 1) Educating current and future health professionals and the public; 2) Providing high-quality innovative, patient- and family-centered health care and also providing specialty expertise not routinely available in community settings; and, 3) Advancing knowledge in areas of human health and disease and translating and accelerating discoveries into health improvements.

World-Class Facilities

Washington Regional Medical Center

Washington Regional is a community-owned, locally governed, non-profit health care system located in northwest Arkansas, employing over 3,400 team members and serving the region with a 425-bed medical center, over 50 clinic locations and five Centers of Excellence – the Washington Regional J.B. Hunt Transport Services Neuroscience Institute; Washington Regional Walker Heart Institute; Washington Regional Women and Infants Center; Washington Regional Total Joint Center; and Washington Regional Pat Walker Center for Seniors.

Washington Regional is the region’s only Level 2 trauma center, the first hospital in northwest Arkansas and one of only two in the state to earn certification as a Comprehensive Stroke Center by The Joint Commission, one of only two hospitals in the state to earn Spine Surgery certification from The Joint Commission, and is the first hospital in Arkansas to be named an Antimicrobial Stewardship Center of Excellence by the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Washington Regional has once again been recognized as the #1 hospital in Arkansas by U.S. News and World Report for 2022-23, being ranked as high performing in seven areas of care — chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, heart attack, heart failure, hip replacement, kidney failure, knee replacement, lung cancer surgery, stroke and uterine cancer surgery.

In April 2022, Washington Regional and the Alice L. Walton Foundation announced plans to form a partnership to create a new, transformative health care system in northwest Arkansas focused on whole health in partnership with Cleveland Clinic. More news related to this partnership will be released soon.

In 2022, Washington Regional built out a 6,400 square foot academic space within the hospital that includes classrooms, resident work space, residency program team rooms, and program offices.

Mercy Hospital Berryville

Mercy Hospital Berryville is a 25-bed acute care critical access was ranked among the Top 25 percent of best-performing rural, acute care hospitals by iVantage Health Analytics and the National Organization of State Offices of Rural Health.

Mercy Hospital Berryville provides comprehensive inpatient care with dedicated hospitalist physicians, enabling patients to remain closer to home for recovery and follow-up care. The emergency department has state-of the-art equipment, including ambulance and Lifeline air transportation and is designated as a Level IV trauma center.

In 2014, the Mercy Berryville Imaging Services Department was CT accredited by the American College of Radiology and provides a full range of diagnostic imaging services that are interpreted by a board-certified radiologist. The Mercy Berryville sleep center is accredited by the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.

Mercy Berryville’s outpatient clinics include family medicine, cardiology; ear, nose, throat, and audiology; nephrology; neurology; ophthalmology; outpatient surgery; physical therapy; psychiatry; rheumatology; and wound care.

Quick facts about Mercy in Berryville, Arkansas.

• 18,399 outpatient visits
• 25 beds
• 113 co-workers
• 10,188 emergency room visits

Mercy Berryville and Mercy Hospital Northwest in Rogers, Arkansas are part of the St. Louis, Missouri-based Mercy health system. Mercy, one of the 25 largest U.S. health systems and named the top large system in the U.S. for excellent patient experience by NRC Health, serves millions annually with nationally recognized quality care and one of the nation’s largest Accountable Care Organizations. Mercy is a highly integrated, multi-state health care system including more than 40 acute care, managed and specialty (heart, children’s, orthopedic and rehab) hospitals, convenient and urgent care locations, imaging centers and pharmacies. Mercy has 900 physician practices and outpatient facilities, 4,000 Mercy Clinic physicians and advanced practitioners, and more than 40,000 co-workers serving patients and families across Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri and Oklahoma. Mercy also has clinics, outpatient services and outreach ministries in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.

Quick Program Information

• NRMP code: 1582120C7
• ACGME code: 1200400003
• Program name: UAMS Regional Centers Program [1200400003]
• Sponsoring Institution: UAMS Regional Centers
• Available positions: Accepting four positions for the 2025-2026 academic year
• State: Arkansas

Learn More

Our Family Medicine Residency Program has been training new doctors in Northwest Arkansas since the 1970s. This new program is focusing on rural communities. Watch: More about our residencies and fellowship programs.