When Smackover resident Mandy Brown, 83, heard from local doctors that there are few geriatric care specialists in the state, she felt compelled to act.
"Last year, before my husband passed away, we were just talking with different people, two doctors we usually see, and we noticed that they didn't have any geriatric doctors in Arkansas like they do in Kansas City," she said.
Brown is originally from Kansas City, Missouri, she noted.
On March 16, Brown travelled to Little Rock to share her concerns about senior health care with Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders. She met with Jack Sisson, Sanders's senior policy advisor.
Brown said she and Sisson talked about ways education could be expanded for health care providers in Arkansas to allow them to focus on senior care and policy changes to enhance the standards for providers in nursing homes in the state.
"I would like to see the governor make history," Brown said. "She would be the first governor to see that all the nursing homes all have at least one geriatric doctor."
According to the American Geriatric Society, in 2020, there were 8,220 full-time, practicing physicians specialized in geriatric care in the U.S. There were 52.4 million senior citizens in the U.S. that same year.
"I think that it was good. They could see I had a good point," said Brown.
Former El Dorado Mayor Veronica Smith-Creer accompanied Brown to Little Rock.
"As far as doctors being recruited to the area, I believe she thought the governor might have some influence with that," Smith-Creer said.
The Governor's office didn't respond to questions about the meeting by press time Sunday.