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Welcome to the 12th issue of the Medical News of Arkansas. That's right, one-year old, but our parent company, Medical News, Inc. has had a presence in Arkansas for longer.

Internet domain names were registered well over two years ago and talks with Medical News CEO Mac Hardcastle about expanding into the Arkansas market started in January 2006.

The decision to start publishing was made shortly thereafter, as it took some time to hire staff for the publication and the first issue rolled off the presses in April 2006.

But why move into Arkansas?

Medical News is an established publishing house in Nashville, Tenn., and now has 10 papers scattered throughout the South. Arkansas was a logical step west.
Nashville Medical News was the first, and the need for a publication that specialized in the business of healthcare was obvious. While Nashville may be known for country music, the real driver of the local economy in Middle Tennessee is healthcare.

The Medical News brand first expanded west and into Memphis, from there other markets were added in Knoxville and East Tennessee, then Birmingham, Ala., Jackson, Miss., and Acadiana in southwest Louisiana. Florida was next with two papers, one to serve the Tampa Bay market and another in Orlando. Arkansas and Charlotte, N.C., were the final pieces of the puzzle. But not really, as plans to start papers in Georgia and south Florida are also underway, while multiple cities in Texas are being evaluated.

Just like the need in Nashville, the reason for expansion around the South was obvious. Healthcare is big business everywhere.

Baptist Health is the sixth-largest employer in the state and the fourth-largest private employer with nearly 7,500 direct employees. UAMS is even larger with 9,500 employees, but as state employees that are included with the state's largest employer, Arkansas. Even then, UAMS is still the largest single employer inside the state system.

Also making the top 10 is the Triad Hospital system at No. 8 and ahead of Alltel, while Arkansas Children's Hospital is the 10th largest employer.
The Sisters of Mercy Health System and St. Vincent both make the top 20 at Nos. 19 and 20. In the smaller towns around the state, the local hospital is generally the largest employer, whether it is Camden or Morrilton or Mountain Home.

With that kind of muscle, the business of healthcare coverage should be important, but, for the most part, it is ignored in other publications.
More specifically, the focus of our coverage is how it impacts the providers, what it means to the physicians and decision makers at the healthcare facilities. Plus, we like to tell interesting stories and cover the entire state.

The Physician Spotlight feature lets us find the most interesting doctors in the state and lets their colleagues, former classmates and friends know how they are doing. Doctors like Lowell Ozment in Camden, the state's oldest practicing physician at 93, or Dr. Bob Kerr in Mountain Home, who does double-duty as the CEO of Baxter Regional Medical Center. On the wish list is former Surgeon General Jocelyn Elders, but that's for another issue.

Another way to extend our reach is with our Around Arkansas feature, where a writer goes and spends a day in an Arkansas city and comes back to tell the healthcare story. We've been to nearly all the corners of the state: Texarkana, Jonesboro, Rogers and Camden, a virtual map of Arkansas.

Good stories don't happen just in Little Rock and if you've read this far, you know that by now.

We can do all this because we have the support of advertisers, not just in central Arkansas, but also all over the state. For them — the more than 200 companies who said yes — we give our thanks. They are the ones who pay the bills.


May 2007

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