Arkansas Children’s to Open Pine Bluff Clinic This Month

Arkansas Children’s Hospital Pine Bluff Clinic

Arkansas Children’s on Friday celebrated its new $17.5 million clinic in Pine Bluff, set to open later this month.

The 10,250-SF clinic at Jefferson Regional Medical Center will provide services including preventative care, developmental screenings, community resources and health education. It will also give frontline care to newborns delivered at Jefferson Regional through the statewide ACH Nursery Alliance.

Providers will begin seeing patients in late July, according to a news release from Arkansas Children’s, which operates two pediatric hospitals in Little Rock and Springdale and an array of clinics statewide. Children’s in Little Rock operates the the state’s only Level I pediatric trauma center, its only burn center and its only Level IV neonatal intensive care unit.

Its fast-growing, 233,613-SF hospital in Springdale opened in 2018. It received a $5 million donation from J.B. Hunt Transport Services Inc. of Lowell on Thursday.

“Because of the leadership of the Arkansas Children’s Hospital Board of Directors, as well as generous philanthropic support, the ACH Pine Bluff Clinic will provide care close to home for families throughout the region,” Arkansas Children’s President and CEO Marcy Doderer said. “We are proud of this partnership with Jefferson Regional and our shared commitment to provide excellent pediatric care to the children of Pine Bluff and southeast Arkansas.”

Children’s announced plans for the clinic in 2019. Its foundation has raised $10 million toward the $17.5 million goal to cover construction of the clinic and operating costs for the first five years.

Among the donors are Merle and Deloris Peterson, who give $3 million, and Simmons Bank, which kicked in $1 million. Simmons Bank is a subsidiary of publicly traded Simmons First National Corp. of Pine Bluff.

Other donors include:

• $1 million from an anonymous donor outside Arkansas
• $100,000 and a $980,000 challenge grant from J.E. and L.E. Mabee Foundation Inc.
• $600,000 from the Kline Family Foundation
• $500,000 from the Sunderland Foundation

Others have given a collective $1.8 million, including the Windgate Foundation; the William Harold Sturgis Charitable Trust; the statewide volunteer group Circle of Friends; campaign chairs Cassie and Jason LaFrance; campaign chairs Charlie and Cappy Ware-Whiteside; Luther King Capital Management; and Jacqueline and Michael Retzer.