UAMS meets fundraising goal
Posted on Thursday, November 20, 2008
ROGERS — Philanthropists from three Northwest Arkansas families have put a fundraiser by the state’s medical school over the top.
Don Tyson and the Tyson Family Foundation, the Willard and Pat Walker Charitable Foundation Inc., and Johnelle Hunt provided three gifts totaling $ 1. 5 million, officials with the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences announced Wednesday.
“Each of these families has pledged a half-a-million dollars, which puts us over that threshold of $ 3 million,” Dr. Peter Kohler, vice chancellor for UAMS-Northwest, said during a news conference held in Rogers.
UAMS will use proceeds from the $ 3 million capital campaign — which raised $ 3. 055 million — to fund renovations to the old Washington Regional Medical Center building in Fayetteville, which will house programs for its northwest satellite campus.
After completing two years in Little Rock, UAMS medical students can apply to finish their third and fourth years of school at the satellite location, which is expected to open for the fall 2009 semester.
When full enrollment is reached, UAMS expects the northwest campus to have more than 300 medical students, physician residents and students from its nursing, pharmacy and health-related professions colleges, Kohler said. Between 80-100 of these would be medical students, evenly divided between the junior and senior classes.
The residency programs would be phased in gradually. According to Kohler’s updated estimates, the earliest the residents would come in for regular rotations is July 2010, although some residents may elect to come earlier for the psychiatric residency program, perhaps as early as July 2009. UAMS and other partners expect to open an inpatient unit for acute psychiatric cases at Northwest Medical Center-Springdale this January, which would restore services lost in April 2002 when the 20-bed Highland Hall unit closed.
The next residency program UAMS adds would be for internal medicine, he said, add- ing that he is in talks with Fort Smith-area hospitals —Sparks Regional Medical Center and St. Edward Mercy Medical Center — about partnering with the medical school to train resident internists.
“The reason is they’ve got a lot of internists there and, generally, internists are in short supply here,” Kohler said.
The renovated Washington Regional space would house classrooms and clinics but not hospital beds. All major hospitals in Washington and Benton counties have agreed to work with UAMS residents, except for Mercy Medical Center in Rogers.
“Mercy is not in the fold — yet,” Kohler said. “That is one of my projects. I think we need all the hospitals if we can get them.”
The $ 3. 055 million is part of UAMS’ overall Campaign Imagine, which began raising funds Jan. 1, 2004, toward a $ 325 million goal, said John I. Blohm, vice chancellor for development and alumni affairs. Wednesday’s three gifts put that campaign, which is to wrap up Dec. 31, 2010, around $ 290 million.
Completing the northwest capital campaign would make it easier to ask the Legislature for ongoing operations costs of $ 3 million annually, Kohler said, adding that they are lower than originally estimated.
“Local support has been demonstrated,” Kohler said. And UAMS’ success at securing a 20-year lease, for $ 1 per year, on a building currently valued at between $ 58 million to $ 60 million is expected to help as well.
Tyson, chairman emeritus of Tyson Foods Inc., said the fact that the satellite is starting up next year — and not 10 years down the road — particularly interested him.
“I called Johnelle, and I said: I’ll do it if you’ll do it,” Tyson said after the announcement, adding that Hunt agreed, and suggested calling the Walker family as well.
Hunt said Tyson’s call was just what she needed to make the final commitment for her and the rest of the Hunt family, which doesn’t have a family foundation. UAMS officials already had convinced her, she said, but she’d gotten busy and needed a reminder.
“When you think of all the young people who want to go to medical school, I feel this has real importance,” Hunt said, adding she was told medical student applications exceed available spots.
Debbie Walker, executive director of the Walker foundation, said as a Campaign Imagine steering committee member, she was familiar with the satellite efforts.
“For over 20 years, our family has supported UAMS,” Walker, daughter-in-law of Pat Walker and the late Willard Walker, said during the announcement. “I would invite each of you to imagine better health care in Arkansas.”
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