LITTLE ROCK – The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) has established a Women’s Health Clinic to provide prenatal care for pregnant inmates at the Pulaski County Regional Detention Center.

The clinic will hold weekly onsite prenatal visits as well as see patients by interactive video operated through the UAMS Center for Distance Health and the UAMS College of Medicine’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

The Center for Distance Health has installed telemedicine equipment in the detention center’s medical facility. The equipment includes a video monitor and camera to enable a live, interactive video connection between pregnant inmates and health care providers at UAMS as well as a fetal heart rate monitor and ultrasound capability.

If the pregnant inmates have medical complaints outside of clinic hours, the detention center medical staff can place a video call to triage nurses and obstetricians at UAMS. They will evaluate the inmates from the hospital three miles away using video equipment to speak to the women while analyzing the fetus’ well-being through the detention center’s heart-rate monitor.

The university has worked with pregnant inmates in Arkansas state prisons since 2007, but Little Rock is the first detention center in the state to host a similar telemedicine clinic.

In addition to providing medical services at the detention center, the video equipment will also be used for continuing education for detention center staff.