The Murphy Family Foundation and the Murphy USA Charitable Foundation have pledged $1 million over three years to the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences to support the creation of a new regional campus that was announced in 2019 and is expected to open in El Dorado in January.
The campus will have a impact, not only for El Dorado but also for patients in south Arkansas and across the state, according to a news release from the medical school, which has its main campus in Little Rock.
"I want to thank The Murphy Family Foundation and the Murphy USA Charitable Foundation for their commitment to an ongoing partnership to bring better health care to El Dorado," said UAMS Chancellor Cam Patterson.
The El Dorado campus will be a joint effort between UAMS and the Medical Center of South Arkansas to increase medical access throughout south Arkansas by training primary care physicians to serve Union County, according to the news release. UAMS expects to begin training family medicine residents by July 2023.
"The new regional campus will accommodate 12 resident physicians and our goal, as well as our ask, is we as a community convince those newly minted doctors that El Dorado is an appealing and attractive place to live and practice medicine," said Madison Murphy, president of The Murphy Family Foundation and chairman of the Murphy USA board of directors. "We believe quality health care is a critical component in the fabric of any successful, vibrant, and viable community."
UAMS currently has eight regional campuses -- in Batesville, Fayetteville, Fort Smith, Helena-West Helena, Jonesboro, Magnolia, Pine Bluff and Texarkana.
The majority of family practice physicians in rural areas of the state are trained at one of UAMS' regional campuses.
Creating a regional campus in El Dorado will provide an influx of physicians and health care professionals in Union County and south Arkansas and make it easier to maintain consistent levels of care, according to the news release.
"Their investment in the UAMS El Dorado Regional Campus will support our efforts to create, open and sustain the family medicine residency program for the El Dorado region," said Amy Wenger, vice chancellor for regional campuses at UAMS.
Regional campuses, originally called Area Health Education Centers, began 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, according to the news release. One of the centers had been located in El Dorado.
In November, a $500,000 gift from an anonymous donor established the Dr. David M. Yocum III El Dorado Regional Program Fund for Excellence, which is dedicated to building the regional campus in El Dorado.
Yocum, one of the first thoracic surgeons in Arkansas and an El Dorado native, died in 2012. He was a 1946 graduate of UAMS College of Medicine. Yocum was an assistant clinical professor of surgery at UAMS, was on the teaching staff of what is now the UAMS South Regional Campus and served as a foundation board member for the College of Medicine. Beginning in 1951, he practiced general and thoracic surgery in El Dorado for several decades.
In October, Simmons Bank presented $25,000 to UAMS to help fund the regional campus in El Dorado.
In total, $3.67 million has been committed through the generous philanthropy of numerous individuals and corporate contributors, Yavonda Chase, a spokeswoman for UAMS, said in an email. That amount includes the $1 million from the Murphy foundations.