UAMS Signs Pledge, Joining Group Committed to Decarbonizing Health Care Sector
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Chancellor Cam Patterson, right, shares a thumbs-up moment with Little Rock Mayor Frank Scott Jr. after the mayor turned on one of the generators in the new power plant at the conclusion of the formal opening of the facility.
Image by Evan Lewis
| The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) recently joined more than 100 health care organizations nationwide in pledging to take action to decarbonize the health care sector and make their facilities more resilient to the effects of climate change.
In taking the White House/Department of Health and Human Services Health Sector Climate Pledge, UAMS formally has committed to pursuing the goal of reducing emissions by 50% by 2030 and achieving net zero emissions by 2050. The university already is well on the way to achieving that with a $150 million energy project, which has and will continue to reduce carbon emissions by reducing energy use. The project launched in November 2019 and is now progressing into its final phase.
Signing the pledge were 102 prominent health care organizations and companies in the U.S., including partners representing 837 hospitals as well as leading health centers, suppliers, insurance companies, group purchasing organizations, pharmaceutical companies and more. Federal health care systems combining efforts with these organizations means that more than 1,080 federal and private sector hospitals have made such commitments, together representing more than 15% of U.S. hospitals.
In October 2021, the university finished the construction of a $50 million electrical power plant on the east side of its Little Rock campus, a key part of the energy project.
As part of the project, UAMS also has upgraded campus building control systems, interior and exterior lighting and electrical and mechanical systems. Workers retrofitted the entire campus with new, energy-efficient LED lighting. The electrical systems in some buildings were original to their 1950s-era construction.
“The work of pulling those technologies from the mid-20th century and into the early 21st isn’t over though,” said Christina Clark, MBA, UAMS chief operating officer and vice chancellor for Institutional Support Services. A study is underway to examine the feasibility of using solar power and where UAMS might deploy it.
Clark said UAMS Chancellor Cam Patterson, M.D., MBA “wants us to be the most sustainable academic medical center in the United States. We have a big job to do, and this pledge is another demonstration our commitment to doing it.”
UAMS is the state’s only health sciences university, with colleges of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Health Professions and Public Health; a graduate school; a hospital; a main campus in Little Rock; a Northwest Arkansas regional campus in Fayetteville; a statewide network of regional campuses; and seven institutes: the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute, Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute, Psychiatric Research Institute, Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging, Translational Research Institute and Institute for Digital Health & Innovation. UAMS includes UAMS Health, a statewide health system that encompasses all of UAMS’ clinical enterprise. UAMS is the only adult Level 1 trauma center in the state. UAMS has 3,240 students, 913 medical residents and fellows, and five dental residents. It is the state’s largest public employer with more than 11,000 employees, including 1,200 physicians who provide care to patients at UAMS, its regional campuses, Arkansas Children’s, the VA Medical Center and Baptist Health. Visit www.uams.edu or uamshealth.com. Find us on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or Instagram.
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