Simmons Banks Donates $1 Million to Arkansas Children’s Pine Bluff Clinic in Association with Jefferson Regional

(Statewide) May 20, 2020 – Simmons Bank donated $1 million to support the construction of the Arkansas Children’s Pine Bluff Clinic. Arkansas Children’s, in association with Jefferson Regional, will establish a new pediatric clinic on the campus of Jefferson Regional in Pine Bluff.

“Simmons Bank has a rich history of supporting the communities we call home, especially our hometown community of Pine Bluff,” said George A. Makris Jr., chairman and CEO of Simmons Bank. “We are proud to invest in the new Arkansas Children’s Pine Bluff Clinic on the Jefferson Regional campus and provide a vital healthcare resource for families in the region.”

To celebrate this leadership gift, the clinic lobby will be named in honor of Simmons Bank.

“In these unprecedented times with the COVID-19 health crisis, we are incredibly grateful for the support of Simmons Bank,” said Marcy Doderer, FACHE, president and CEO of Arkansas Children’s. “We continue to care for sick and vulnerable children because we know that delayed care could result in lifelong health complications. Our children need us now more than ever.”

According to data by the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, 52 percent of children in Arkansas do not receive coordinated, ongoing, comprehensive care within a medical home. The new pediatric clinic will provide care close to home for families in southeast Arkansas, including preventative care, developmental screenings, community resources and health education.

“Simmons Bank established their roots in Pine Bluff more than 100 years ago,” said Fred Scarborough, president of Arkansas Children’s Foundation. “Arkansas Children’s is grateful for this investment in the promise of providing unprecedented healthcare to children in Pine Bluff and the southern region of our state.”

Initial plans estimate that the Arkansas Children’s Pine Bluff Clinic will be an approximately 10,000 square-foot facility with 14 exam rooms, team collaboration space and a welcoming lobby with kid-savvy spaces. The clinic physicians will also provide frontline care to newborns receiving care in the NICU who are delivered at Jefferson Regional. The new clinic requires a $17.5 million investment to fund construction and operating expenses over the first five years.

“Jefferson Regional provides vital health care to the southeast region of Arkansas,” said Brian Thomas, president and CEO of Jefferson Regional. “Providing a new pediatric clinic in association with Arkansas Children’s will ensure we have long-term stability to continue providing the children of this region great healthcare. Jefferson Regional is grateful for the continued support from Simmons Bank.”

Campaign for a Healthier Tomorrow

By most national measures, Arkansas is one of the least healthy states ranking 40 out of 50 states in overall child health and well-being. Arkansas Children’s envisions a healthier tomorrow for all 710,000 children in the state – for both longtime patients and the children who will never walk through the doors of Arkansas Children’s.

Since 2015, the Campaign for a Healthier Tomorrow has secured more than $220 million in gifts toward a $250 million goal: 

• In 2015, Arkansas Children’s invested in two new S-76D Sikorsky Angel One Helicopters with the ability to reach a child anywhere in the state within 55 minutes. Since 1978, the Angel One Transport team has transported the most critically ill and injured patients to Arkansas Children’s and established a statewide network of care for children in Arkansas.

• Arkansas Children’s Dental Outreach programs are providing care to children across the state. Four full-service mobile dental vans serve children in need of root canals, cavity fillings, extractions and crowns. School-based programs provide oral health education, dental sealants and screenings to more than 8,000 students annually. To date, the mobile dental vans and the dental sealant program have provided $13 million in preventive oral health services for children since 2009.

• Arkansas Children’s Hospital (ACH) has the state’s only level IV NICU. In 2016, ACH announced the creation of the ACH Nursery Alliance to collaborate with hospitals around the state to provide infants the care they need close to home. Since the program’s inception, the ACH Nursery Alliance has established partnerships with Conway Regional in Conway, CHI St. Vincent in Hot Springs, Jefferson Regional in Pine Bluff, Medical Center of South Arkansas in El Dorado and Ashley County Medical Center in Crossett.

• In 2016, Arkansas Children’s established the David M. Clark Center for Safe and Healthy Children, a place dedicated to the care and treatment of neglected and abused children and their families. The Center is a single, safe place for children to receive medical, psychological and social health services and provides support by providing outpatient medical evaluations for children at the Medical Clinic, Family Treatment Program and Team for Children at Risk.

• In 2017, the ACH Southwest Little Rock Community Clinic opened. Staffed with bilingual physicians and nurses, the clinic provides general pediatric and preventative care to families in the region. ACH clinics in Jonesboro and West Little Rock also provide pediatric care to children in the state.

• In 2018, Arkansas Children’s Northwest (ACNW) became one of the nation’s newest children’s hospitals. Located in Springdale, ACNW provides care for more than 20 subspecialty areas, has a general pediatric clinic and is the region’s only pediatric emergency department. To date, ACNW has received commitments of more than $100 million to support care close to home in Northwest Arkansas.

• In 2019, Arkansas Children’s publicly launched the Campaign for a Healthier Tomorrow and celebrated statewide donations of more than $200 million to support our promise of unprecedented child health, defined and delivered.

About Arkansas Children’s

Arkansas Children's, Inc., is the only healthcare system in the state solely dedicated to caring for Arkansas' 710,000 children. The private, non-profit organization includes two pediatric hospitals, a pediatric research institute and USDA nutrition center, a philanthropic foundation, a nursery alliance, statewide clinics, and many education and outreach programs — all focused on fulfilling a promise to define and deliver unprecedented child health. Arkansas Children’s Hospital (ACH) is a 336-bed, Magnet-recognized facility in Little Rock operating the state’s only Level I pediatric trauma center; the state's only burn center; the state's only Level IV neonatal intensive care unit; the state's only pediatric intensive care unit; the state’s only pediatric surgery program with Level 1 verification from the American College of Surgeons (ACS); the state’s only magnetoencephalography (MEG) system for neurosurgical planning and cutting-edge research; and the state's only nationally recognized pediatric transport program. Additionally, ACH is nationally ranked by U.S. News & World Report in five pediatric subspecialties (2019–2020): Cardiology & Heart Surgery, Nephrology, Neurology & Neurosurgery, Orthopedics and Pulmonology. ACH is one of only five hospitals in the nation that have achieved Magnet Status, ACS Level 1 verification and a Beacon award from the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses. Arkansas Children’s Northwest (ACNW), the first and only pediatric hospital in the Northwest Arkansas region, opened in Springdale in early 2018. ACNW operates a 24-bed inpatient unit; a surgical unit with five operating rooms; outpatient clinics offering over 20 subspecialties; diagnostic services; imaging capabilities; occupational therapy services; and Northwest Arkansas' only pediatric emergency department, equipped with 30 exam rooms. Generous philanthropic and volunteer engagement has sustained Arkansas Children's since it began as an orphanage in 1912, and today ensures the system can champion children by making them better today and healthier tomorrow. To learn more, visit archildrens.org.

About Simmons Bank

Simmons Bank is an Arkansas state-chartered bank that began in 1903. Through the decades, Simmons has developed a full suite of financial products and services designed to meet the needs of individual consumers and business customers alike. Simmons has grown steadily and today operates more than 200 branch locations throughout Arkansas, Illinois, Kansas, Missouri, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Texas. Simmons is the subsidiary bank for Simmons First National Corporation (NASDAQ: SFNC), a publicly traded bank holding company headquartered in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, with total consolidated assets of $20.8 billion as of March 31, 2020. For more information, visit https://simmonsbank.com/.

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