El Dorado News-Times
As its 16th anniversary approaches, SAMA, has announced the medical clinic’s expansion with a 10,000 square foot addition to its facility on South Timberlane Drive in El Dorado. SAMA currently employees five physicians, seven nurse practitioners and 46 additional support staff, providing its patients access to healthcare seven days a week.
Administrator Pete Atkinson explained that SAMA has gone through a total transformation to a team-based approach to healthcare in the past three years, including the hiring of almost 30 new employees and a focus on more proactive healthcare.
“We want to keep you well, not just make you feel better,” Atkinson said. “We are providing better care than ever and we need the additional space to provide more of it.”
SAMA’s patient-centered medical model has been recognized on a national level, most notably through coverage on MSNBC, according to a news release from SAMA.
Patrick Conway, MD, the deputy administrator for Innovation and Quality and chief medical officer for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, mentioned SAMA during a presentation at The White House. “Innovation is nothing new for SAMA, which has been recognized for years for their early adoption and utilization of electronic medical records,” according to the news release.
The new addition to SAMA is expected to be complete in early 2016. It will include space for six additional providers, including Parkers Chapel native, Lauren Sideroff Monteith, MD, who will be finishing her residency in summer 2016 before joining SAMA.
“We are very excited about Dr. Monteith joining Team SAMA,” said founding SAMA physician, Dr. Gary Bevill. “She will be a perfect fit and she is just one of several local medical students and residents we are encouraging to ‘come home’ to practice medicine.”
Dr. James Sheppard added, “Our goal has always been to provide quality healthcare to our friends, neighbors and family here in South Arkansas and this is one more step toward ensuring SAMA continues to serve South Arkansas for many years to come. None of us plan on retiring any time soon, so we have to make room for the young talent we are bringing back into the community.”