Simmons Bank Donates $25,000 to El Dorado UAMS Regional Campus
| On Oct. 28 Simmons Bank presented $25,000 to University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) representatives to help fund the coming UAMS regional campus in El Dorado. The campus represents a joint effort by the Medical Center of South Arkansas (MCSA) and UAMS to increase medical access throughout south Arkansas by training primary care physicians to serve Union County.
“The arrival of the UAMS regional campus in El Dorado will represent a very special moment for our community, bringing benefits that range from enhanced medical services and education to boosted economic opportunity,” said Rob Robinson, Simmons Bank’s El Dorado community president. “We at Simmons feel honored to support a program that will positively impact so many individuals and families.”
The UAMS regional campus in El Dorado hopes to open its clinic in January 2022 and begin training medical college graduates to become family medicine residents by July 2023.
“I am very thankful to Simmons Bank for this investment to improve health care in El Dorado,” said UAMS Chancellor Cam Patterson, M.D., MBA. “Community partnerships like these are essential to increasing access to health care across the state. We are looking forward to establishing a new regional campus in El Dorado.”
UAMS has committed to building its ninth regional campus in El Dorado. The majority of family practice physicians in rural areas of the state are trained at one of UAMS’ eight regional campuses. Creating a regional campus will provide an influx of physicians and health care professionals to create a sustainable educational and training pipeline and make it easier to maintain consistent levels of care.
Regional Campuses, originally called Area Health Education Centers (AHECs), was started in 1973 through the efforts of then-Gov. Dale Bumpers, the Arkansas Legislature and UAMS to train medical residents and provide clinical care and health education services around the state. Its eight regional campuses are located in Batesville, Fayetteville, Fort Smith, Helena-West Helena, Jonesboro, Magnolia, Pine Bluff and Texarkana. UAMS is working to expand the number of campuses across the state.
Simmons’ donation to the UAMS Regional Program follows on the heels of its $1 million gift to support the Jefferson County Health Unit and the Veteran’s Services Office earlier this month and a $1 million gift to Arkansas Children’s in May to support construction of a new pediatric clinic in Pine Bluff.
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 eight 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, Institute for Digital Health & Innovation and the Institute for Community 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 3,275 students, 890 medical residents and fellows, and five dental residents. It is the state’s largest public employer with more than 12,000 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, X (formerly Twitter), YouTube or Instagram.###