September 21, 2011
Tom Golisano pledges $20 million for new children’s hospital
A $20 million gift from Rochester philanthropist B. Thomas Golisano has jump-started plans to build a new children’s hospital. With the gift, the Medical Center plans to build a $134 million Golisano Children’s Hospital dedicated to the care of sick and injured youngsters.
Golisano |
“A new facility is necessary to keep pace with medical and technological advancements and meet the modern standards of a children’s hospital,” says Golisano, founder of Paychex Inc. “I am pleased to provide this gift to help construct a new, next-generation hospital to provide the highest quality care to children throughout the region.”
“Tom’s gift will transform the way that children are cared for in upstate New York and it advances our ability to modernize Golisano Children’s Hospital for the 21st century,” says University President Joel Seligman. “His generous decision follows a thoughtful review of construction alternatives and reflects Tom’s uncompromising desire to ensure that every dollar given goes to help our region’s children. In fact, Tom has helped us evolve the plan for a new Golisano Children’s Hospital into something more remarkable than we initially envisioned.”
The pledge brings Golisano’s total giving to the children’s hospital to $34 million, making him the University’s most generous living donor. In addition, the Golisano Foundation has given $1.6 million to the University’s Strong Center for Developmental Disabilities to establish the Institute for Innovative Transition.
Pending state approval, the Medical Center will construct a six-story, 200,000 square-foot hospital on Crittenden Boulevard adjacent to the Strong Memorial Hospital lobby and facing the Wilmot Cancer Center.
“The new Golisano Children’s Hospital is the ideal setting in which to practice patient- and family-centered care for our youngest patients,” says Medical Center CEO Bradford Berk. “This amazing facility will ensure that children will not have to leave our community for care and that families can always remain with their hospitalized children. Plus, it will help us recruit, train, and retain the very best caregivers. We are grateful beyond words.”
The new building will include a 60-bed Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, pediatric imaging, and 56 private pediatric rooms. Rooms in the new building will be one-third larger than current private rooms, ensuring greater comfort for patients, families, and caregivers. The new design will allow patients to be grouped by disease or injury, giving the hospital more opportunity to specially train nurses and other staff members to become experts in common ailments, such as asthma.
The Medical Center hopes to begin construction as early as August 2012, pending state approval, with an estimated completion of February 2015.
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