Wonks at Work

The COVID-19 public health emergency may have ended, but some Arkansans who were infected are still experiencing health impacts. In this episode, host Craig Wilson welcomes CHI St. Vincent cardiologist Dr. Anthony Fletcher, who discusses findings from ACHI’s analysis of COVID-19 disparities and long COVID in Arkansas. Dr. Fletcher also gives a firsthand account of COVID-19’s impact on patients wit...

Several new laws passed by the Arkansas General Assembly during its most recent session have already taken effect or will go into effect at the end of this month. In this episode of the podcast, we revisit the session through a healthcare lens for a review of what has already changed, what will soon become the law of the land, and what it all means for individuals and communities. Host Craig Wilso...

In this episode, we revisit the intersection of mental health and law enforcement, a space in need of innovative solutions and a topic that has been the focus of two previous episodes. Host Craig Wilson welcomes Fayetteville Police Lt. Tim Shepard for a discussion of his work in Northwest Arkansas as the supervisor of the Crisis Intervention Response Team, a task force that integrates Social Servi...

In this episode, we explore how electronic health records — digital collections of patients' medical histories (lab results, medications, ER visits, etc.) — can be used to improve the care we receive. Host Craig Wilson is joined by Anne Santifer, executive director of the Office of Health Information Technology at the Arkansas Department of Health, which houses the State Health Alliance for Record...

Harm reduction is a key part of how we address the opioid epidemic. Making the overdose-reversal drug naloxone more widely available is a mainstay of harm reduction and the chief objective of ACHI's NaloxHome program. It is also critical to connect people with substance use disorder to treatment options and not miss opportunities for intervention. That’s where Dr. Mike Wilson, an associate profess...

Our guest for this episode, Ryan Cork, is leading business-sector efforts in Northwest Arkansas to respond to a rapidly changing healthcare environment in the midst of population growth. Cork has extensive experience in healthcare administration, having worked in multiple roles for the Cleveland Clinic, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, and The James Cancer Hospital. Currently servi...

One of the ways that we measure whether we are moving toward health equity is by measuring health disparities, i.e., the size of the gap between advantaged and disadvantaged groups. In this episode, host Craig Wilson talks with Derek Lewis II, president of the Derek Lewis Foundation — founded by his father, Dr. Derek Lewis — about health disparities in Arkansas and the work that the foundation and...

While the COVID-19 pandemic has dominated the public health landscape the past few years, a more silent killer has increasingly claimed American lives: opioids. Although policies regarding prevention, treatment, and recovery have improved, policymakers have been unable to keep pace with this rapidly evolving epidemic. In this episode, ACHI Peer Support Coordinator Lester Cupp joins host Craig Wils...

Brick-and-mortar crisis stabilization units, which have been launched in four areas of Arkansas, serve a critical role in law enforcement response to those in mental health crisis, but they comprise only one component of the response spectrum and are not available in some rural areas of the state. Put simply, law enforcement officers need additional options. In this episode, host Craig Wilson talk...

The United States is still a long way from eliminating the stigma associated with seeking care for mental health needs, but the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed that more of us struggle with mental illness than society previously acknowledged. In this episode, host Craig Wilson talks with Dr. Mark Jansen, vice president and chief medical officer for Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield, about how the...

More than 100,000 Americans need a life-saving organ transplant, but many will die waiting to be matched with a suitable donor. And the waiting list is ever growing — every 16 minutes a new patient is added. On this episode, we welcome Mark Tudor, president and CEO of ARORA, the largest organ and tissue recovery agency in Arkansas. Mark talks to us about how to register as an organ donor, clears u...

Unmet social needs — such as food, housing, transportation, and child care — can have detrimental impacts on people's physical and mental well-being, but most healthcare providers have been ill-equipped to address these needs. In this episode, host Craig Wilson talks with Hark Executive Director Josh Hall about the increasing need to integrate social care with health care, what solutions have emer...

On this episode, we zero in on the intersection of health and criminal justice with Dr. Nick Zaller, a professor at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences College of Public Health and founder and director of the Southern Public Health and Criminal Justice Research Center. Dr. Zaller talks about his study of crisis stabilization units (CSUs) in Arkansas and what can be done to improve acce...

Hospitals in Arkansas are experiencing increasing budgetary challenges. Medicaid expansion spared Arkansas from the rash of hospital closures that has plagued other states, but it doesn’t mean our hospitals are not at risk. In this episode, Baptist Health President and CEO Troy Wells delves into the reasons why hospitals across the state are struggling, what he has learned about himself as a leade...

On this episode, host Craig Wilson interviews his “Memphis the Musical” co-star and cancer survivor Satia Spencer. The pair discuss her survivor story, the new clinical recommendations for screening, and her advice for people hesitant to get screened. Spencer served as a Marine and is a music educator for the Little Rock School District. Shameless promotional plug: "Memphis the Musical" runs throu...

Oral health is a key indicator of our overall health, yet it’s often overlooked as an essential part of staying healthy. In this episode, host Craig Wilson talks to Delta Dental of Arkansas CEO Kristin Merlo about oral health access issues in Arkansas, bridging the medical-dental divide, and the promise of the recently announced plans for a dental school in Arkansas.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic more than two years ago, hospital capacity has been a major focus of attention — but we often forget about the capacity needed to get people to the hospital. For over 30 years, Greg Thompson has worked with the largest ambulance service in Arkansas, MEMS, which stands for Metropolitan Emergency Medical Services. Now at the service’s helm as executive direct...

Wonks at Work goes national. In this episode, host Craig Wilson talks to national and state leaders about how we can better equip those who want to start families to have better outcomes. Our guests are Dr. Neel Shah, a national leader in maternal health and chief medical officer for Maven, a virtual clinic for women’s and family health; and Dr. Creshelle Nash, medical director for health equity a...

We all want to move on from the pandemic, but in our haste we may have robbed ourselves of the time to process the trauma and grief we’ve experienced in the last two years. This is one of the reasons the Arkansas Center for Health Improvement called on faith and community leaders to consider having a day of reflection and healing to acknowledge the immense impact of COVID-19 on our lives. On this...

The pandemic has caused suffering, loss, and mental distress for many of us. Mental health challenges particularly affected parents and their children who experienced disruptions with school transitions and child care, communities of color that already faced barriers to accessing mental health care, and essential workers who were much more likely to report suicidal thoughts during the pandemic. On...

We’re back! The omicron wave extended our holiday break longer than we had planned, but our host and top wonk Craig Wilson is behind the mic again. In this episode, we discuss how disruption and isolation created by the pandemic have impacted people struggling with addiction. In 2020, there were almost 92,000 drug overdose deaths in the U.S., 21,000 more than in any previous year. Arkansas Drug Di...

At one time on a path to becoming a preacher, Dr. Len Nichols took a detour and instead became a renowned health economist who is now spreading the gospel of investing in the healthcare system to address unmet social needs. A former professor of health policy at George Mason University and current non-resident fellow of the Health Policy Center of the Urban Institute, Dr. Nichols is the primary in...

A lot happened under the dome of the Arkansas State Capitol this year amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Michelle Kitchens, ACHI government relations director and fellow wonk, gives an overview of this year’s unique legislative session — one conducted in the middle of a public health emergency with a lot of energy devoted to that issue. Kitchens also shares what surprised her this year and what to expect...

Our guest on this episode, ACHI Director of Information Systems Architecture Kenley Money, discusses the progress of the Arkansas Healthcare Transparency Initiative, which includes the state's all-payer claims database. She talks about how much data has been collected since the initiative's inception in 2015; how data from the initiative have been used for research, policy development, and other p...

Host Craig Wilson delves into a relatively new space in health care ― accountable care organizations, or ACOs. Ushered in under a brief portion of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, ACOs bring together competitors and sometimes adversaries that must trust and rely on one another to achieve effective, sustainable change in healthcare delivery. Miranda Morris, executive director of Aled...