URMC Launches $100M Fundraising Campaign for New Hospital

ROCHESTER, N.Y. –Volunteers, University and Medical Center leaders, physicians, and staff recently launched a $100-million campaign to transform Golisano Children’s Hospital at the University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) facilities, teaching, research and patient care programs. The capital project for the new hospital is the largest in the university’s history. The $100-million campaign also represents a large portion of URMC’s overall $650-million campaign.

“This is an aggressive but attainable fundraising goal. This is an incredibly giving community that understands that a new children’s hospital is critically important, and I thank all those who are contributing both money and effort to this campaign,” said Bradford C. Berk, M.D., Ph.D., CEO of URMC. “Our inpatient pediatric facilities and programs must be improved to better support the world-class medicine practiced within.”

The campaign announcement at the 24th annual Children’s Hospital Gala is the latest step in URMC’s plan to bring the Finger Lakes region a new children’s hospital. In July, a $20-million gift from hospital namesake B. Thomas Golisano was announced, along with plans for the hospital dedicated solely to children and their families. With Golisano’s gift, about half of the $100 million goal has been raised to-date. With the campaign now in full swing, a groundswell of volunteers, physicians, employees, parents and former patients have all stepped forward to help.

Golisano Children’s Hospital has recruited three volunteer leaders of the campaign to ensure its success: Mark Siewert, owner of Siewert Equipment Company and current chair of the Golisano Children’s Hospital board, Michael Smith, owner of the Cabot Group and member of the hospital’s board and Elizabeth “Lissa” McAnarney, M.D., former pediatrician-in-chief of the children’s hospital, professor and chair emerita of the Department of Pediatrics at URMC.

“The power of philanthropy has helped fuel the extraordinary success of Golisano Children’s Hospital,” Siewert said. “(However), we can’t be satisfied with our current success. We need to take the next step. Investments large and small are needed to drive Golisano Children’s Hospital to even greater heights.”

As part of the Golisano Children’s Hospital fundraising campaign, the hospital will focus on enhancing care, research and education for the benefit of current and future patients in seven priority areas: Cancer, Neonatology, Autism, Eating Disorders, Cardiovascular Disease, Surgery and Supportive Care.

“Our region needs a hospital that measures up to the highest standards for safety, quality, and family-centeredness to better serve our children and their families. Our region must also make a commitment to improving and sustaining the child- and family-health programs that will develop, teach, support, and provide the very best healthcare practices long into the future. This incredible campaign leadership team will help us do that,” said Nina F. Schor, M.D., Ph.D., William H. Eilinger chair of Pediatrics at URMC and pediatrician-in-chief of Golisano Children’s Hospital. “A successful campaign will help us enhance our programs, so we can promise families we will always be on the leading edge caring for their children, whether they have an eating disorder or a congenital heart defect. We must and will be ‘Ever Better.’”

Golisano’s original $14 million gift to name the Children’s Hospital in 2002 helped URMC recruit outstanding faculty and expand programs in cardiac care, general surgery, neuromedicine, and more. But, as a hospital-within-a-hospital, Golisano Children’s Hospital has lacked an identity separate from Strong Memorial Hospital and the facilities to match the caliber of its programs.

The new hospital, which will be more than 200,000 sq. ft., is still in the planning process and will require approval by the state before construction can begin. The new facility will be located on Crittenden Boulevard, adjacent to Strong Memorial Hospital. A ground-breaking is expected in August 2012.