Mountain Home, AR - Baxter Regional Medical Center welcomes Daniel Alderman, MD, to our medical staff and Mountain Home Radiology Consultants. Dr. Alderman is a board-certified radiologist joining a dedicated team of experienced radiologists, including Matthew McAlister, MD; Joe Tullis, MD; Michael Whitlock, MD and Matthew Wilson, MD.
One thing we have learned or have had reinforced from this pandemic is our need for human contact. And the important role of technology in communicating with others. There’s a skill to communicating efficiently and properly using technology. Even a basic text can be misunderstood without the element of facial expression; hence the creation of emoticons to assist in getting a message across.
RUSSELLVILLE- Arkansas Tech University has announced its Dean’s List for undergraduate students on its Russellville campus for the fall 2021 semester. A student must achieve a 3.5 grade point average or higher and complete at least 12 hours of college-level coursework to be named to the Dean’s List.
Little Rock– The legislature has begun budget hearings in preparation for the 2022 fiscal session, which begins on February 14. Legislators will consider the governor’s proposed balanced budget of about $6 billion for Fiscal Year 2023, which officially begins on July 1.
Pre-fiscal budget hearings began this week with the Governor outlining his balanced budget proposal calling for a 3.3% increase in spending. We will be reviewing the proposal while we continue to hear requests from state agencies and commissions in the days ahead.
A November 2021 Gallup poll identified inflation as one of the top five most important issues for Americans. This is no surprise considering the price increases we’re facing for everyday essentials. Each month, our dollars stretch less and too many are forced to make difficult decisions about their budgets.
Little Rock- Throughout the pandemic, testing for the coronavirus (COVID-19) has been a vital tool for controlling the spread of the disease and ensuring that Arkansans can safely continue with their daily lives. The State of Arkansas has recently obtained 1.5 million rapid at-home COVID-19 tests that are available to Arkansans free of charge. For a list of locations where the at-home tests are available, visit the Health Department’s website.
This week, we announced an economic development win for Arkansas that is the largest single project investment in state history. Today, I’d like to share some details about the new U.S. Steel plant, which eventually will create more than 900 high-paying jobs and will make Mississippi County the Number 1 steel-producing county in the nation.
After hearing about Omicron for weeks, it’s finally made its way to Arkansas and is quickly spreading throughout the state. From January 5 when the state had 38,154 active cases, the virus has escalated to 71,132 active cases on January 12. There have been 116 deaths in that week.
Mountain Home– Since our last update on January 5, active COVID-19 cases in Baxter County have nearly doubled to 357. As of today, there are 20 COVID-19 patients admitted at Baxter Regional, with 6 in ICU and 3 on ventilators. A record high of 80 Baxter Regional employees has active COVID-19, and all those employees are at home and in isolation, per our COVID-19 policy.
