Little Rock Health Care #1 Inc history

The first National Home, now VA’s oldest hospital, opened near Augusta, Maine, on November 1, 1866.

Just a few weeks before Thomas Edison invented the first light bulb in October 1879, eight physicians pooled their money and invested $5,000 to start the first medical school in Arkansas.

1888 is an important year in the history of health care in Arkansas.

Eastern Branch National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers in Togus, Maine, 1891.

Hospital, Central Branch, National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers, Dayton, Ohio, 1912.

In late 1920, the Arkansas Baptist State Convention purchased the former Little Rock Sanitarium property in downtown Little Rock to build a new hospital to serve the state of Arkansas and began temporary operations in the sanitarium building.

On February 16, 1921, the Pulaski County Circuit Court incorporated the Baptist State Hospital, giving the hospital official standing as a legal entity.

They were the first to accept women Veterans for medical care and hospitalization beginning in 1923.

In 1928, admission to Veterans Bureau hospitals and National Homes was fully extended to women, National Guard, and militia Veterans.

By 1929, the National Homes had grown to 11 institutions that spanned the country.

The second consolidation of federal Veterans programs took place on July 21, 1930 when President Herbert Hoover consolidated the Veterans Bureau with the National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers and Pension Bureau and re-designated it as the Veterans Administration.

General Omar Bradley took the reins at VA in 1945 and steered its transformation into a modern organization.

The first women doctors were hired in 1946.

When Bradley left in 1947, there were 125 VA hospitals.

By 1948, 60 medical schools were affiliated with VA hospitals.

In 1951, Governor Sid McMath used funds from a new cigarette tax to secure $7.4 million for a new University Hospital on a 26-acre site on West Markham Street in what was then the outskirts of Little Rock.

The University of Arkansas Medical Center moved into the new hospital in 1956.

The first-ever successful human liver transplant operation took place at the Denver VA Medical Center in May 1963 under Doctor Thomas Starzl.

In 1977, two VA doctors, Doctor Rosalyn Yalow (Bronx VAMC) and Doctor Andrew Schally (New Orleans VAMC) received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work in developing radioimmunoassay of peptide hormones.

VA’s Department of Medicine and Surgery was re-designated as the Veterans Health Services and Research Administration, as part of the elevation, and on May 7, 1991, was renamed as the Veterans Health Administration (VHA).

The Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute was founded in 1994 and houses the Department of Ophthalmology and the Pat & Willard Walker Eye Research Center.

The Harry P. Ward Tower, which opened in 1997, is named in his honor.

In early 2009, UAMS opened a new hospital, a 540,000-square-foot facility with 234 adult beds (since expanded to 346 adult beds) and 64 neonatal beds.

A 12-floor expansion opened in 2010.

In 2011, UAMS established the Translational Research Institute for stimulating cooperative research that accelerates translation and application of scientific discoveries into clinical and community settings.

UAMS also opened a west Little Rock clinic in 2012 that includes a sleep lab.

In 2013, UAMS continued a long tradition of establishing programs that meet changing health care workforce needs when it introduced the doctorate of nursing practice degree, the master’s-level physician assistant, and the state’s first bachelor’s degree in emergency medical sciences.