RURAL DOCTORS WANTED
New training program to bring next generation of physicians to South Arkansas
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, only 11% of the country’s physicians serve rural areas, which are home to about 20% of the U.S. population.
To meet the demand for adequate primary care in El Dorado and South Arkansas, while training the next crop of health care professionals, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences is working with local community partners to open a new medical facility in El Dorado in 2023.
The facility will not exactly be new to the area.
Rather, the UAMS family medicine residency program in El Dorado will be the next iteration of the former Area Health Education Center - South Arkansas.
For more than three decades, AHEC served families out of the former Warner Brown Hospital and later, the south campus of Medical Center of South Arkansas on West Oak Street.
The old hospital building has stood empty since
AHEC closed its doors in El Dorado and relocated to Magnolia in 2013 after MCSA opted not to renew a contract that would have permitted AHEC to continue operating its family clinic and physician residency program out of the building.
At the time, MCSA officials cited rising operating costs for the Warner Brown campus.
That same year, two El Dorado-UAMS programs, the South Arkansas Center on Aging and the Schmieding Home Caregiver Training Program, relocated to the Armstrong Building at 106 W. Main St.
The building is owned by Pete Dunn, a Virginia real estate developer who has family ties in Union County.
Dunn owns and has revitalized several commercial properties in El Dorado, including the El Dorado Federal Center and the Armstrong building, which also houses PJ’s Coffee, The Spot, El Dorado Creamery and other businesses and professional offices.
In December 2015, Dunn purchased the Warner Brown building — which, by then, had been turned over to the city — with a $10 quitclaim deed.
He had intended to re-adapt the 10-plus acre property for a U.S. Veterans Administration project and had bid on the federal contract for the VA El Dorado CommunityBased Outpatient Clinic.
Dunn lost out on the bid, which went to the Oklahoma-based SI Property Investments and the VA project proceeded at 1702 N. West Ave., the site of the former County Market grocery store.
The VA project had called for a major renovation of the interior of the Warner Brown building, including a remediation plan to address significant problems with lead paint and asbestos.
After losing out on the bid for the VA project, Dunn continued exploring options to redevelop the property and at one point, considered a continuum of care facility.
However, he was unable to get a redevelopment project off the ground before the quitclaim deed expired.
Per the terms of the deed, if the VA project fell through and Dunn did not redevelop the Warner Brown property within two years, ownership of the property would revert back to the city.
The community is lauding the return of the UAMS family medicine residency program, which is expected to open 10 years after AHEC closed.
A site and estimated costs have not been announced for the new facility; however, UAMS has drummed up community support in the form of $3.03 million in funding commitments from
The SHARE Foundation ($1.5 million); $1 million from the Murphy Family Foundation and Murphy USA Charitable Foundational; $500,000 from an anonymous donor; and $25,000 from Simmons Bank.
Additionally, Robert Nolan established the Dr. Justin M. Nolan Fund for Excellence in honor of his late son. The fund will flow through the UAMS residency program.
Justin Nolan was an El Doado native and an anthropology professor and department chair at the University of Arkansas’s flagship campus in Fayetteville. He passed away in May 2020 from a sudden heart attack. He was 48.
UAMS officials have said the clinic is set to open next year — the program initially shot for a 2021 opening — and the first residents will begin arriving in 2024 or 2025.
UAMS, community leaders and local health care professionals — doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners and others — have said the residency program will help to fill shortages in the field.
Local medical facilities reported having felt the pinch in health care workers and facilities throughout the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
They have also said the UAMS regional campus will help to boost the city’s economy.
The reboot of UAMS’ family medicine residency program in El Dorado is not expected to affect the AHEC program in Magnolia, UAMS officials have said, explaining that plans call for the two facilities to work as a single, South Arkansas unit.
The El Dorado campus will be the ninth UAMS regional campus in the state.
Richard Turnage, M.D., vice chancellor for UAMS Regional Campuses, said the majority of family practice physicians in rural areas of the state are trained at the university’s 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,” Turnage said.
The new UAMS facility will join the city’s newest health care facility, CARTI Cancer Center South Arkansas, a comprehensive cancer treatment facility that opened late last fall.