The Murphy Foundations pledge $1 million for new UAMS regional campus in El Dorado
May 24-30, 2021
The Murphy Family Foundation and the Murphy USA Charitable Foundation recently pledged $1 million over three years to the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) to support the creation of a new regional campus in El Dorado.
The gifts will have a far-reaching impact, not only for El Dorado, but for patients in south Arkansas and across the state, UAMS officials said.
“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 Dr. Cam Patterson. “We are tremendously grateful for their investment in UAMS as we work to increase the quality of care in Union County.”
The El Dorado campus represents a joint effort by UAMS and the Medical Center of South Arkansas to increase medical access throughout south Arkansas by training primary care physicians to serve Union County. UAMS expects to open its campus in January 2022 and begin training family medicine residents by July 2023.
“I am delighted that UAMS is reestablishing a medical residency program in partnership with the Medical Center of South Arkansas (MCSA) in El Dorado,” said Madison Murphy, president of The Murphy Family Foundation and chairman of Murphy USA Board of Directors. “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.”
“We believe quality health care is a critical component in the fabric of any successful, vibrant, and viable community,” said Murphy.
The El Dorado campus will be UAMS’ ninth regional campus. 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 in El Dorado will provide an influx of physicians and health care professionals in Union County and south Arkansas to create a sustainable educational and training pipeline and make it easier to maintain consistent levels of care.
“I am thankful to The Murphy Family Foundation and the Murphy USA Charitable Foundation for these gifts,” said Amy Wenger, MHSA, vice chancellor for Regional Campuses. “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.”
Regional Campuses, originally called Area Health Education Centers (AHECs), 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, with eight current regional campuses located in Batesville, Fayetteville, Fort Smith, Helena-West Helena, Jonesboro, Magnolia, Pine Bluff and Texarkana.
