EL DORADO - 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.

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.

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.

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.