More than 80% of funding through historic
Tomorrow Starts Today capital campaign
PORTLAND,
Ore., May 14, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Today,
Providence announced investments
totaling $177 million to address
Portland's most urgent health care
challenges by re-imagining emergency and critical cardiac care at
Providence Portland and Providence St. Vincent Medical Centers,
including Providence Heart Institute.
Together, these improvements will provide room
for an additional 50,000 emergency department visits each year –
the equivalent of an entirely new emergency department for
Portland – and support Providence
Heart Institute as it cares for a growing number of patients with
much more complex cardiac conditions than patients in the past.
This commitment is the result of Tomorrow Starts
Today, a capital campaign to enable faster, better care for more
people. More than 80% of the total funding – $144 million – for today's announcement will come
from generous donors, making it the largest campaign in Providence
Oregon's history.
"Philanthropy has enabled Providence to care for Oregonians and patients
in the Pacific Northwest for almost 170 years," said Laurie Kelley, Providence chief philanthropy officer.
"Today's health care challenges require urgent fixes that quite
simply will not be possible without the generous support of our
current and future donors."
With health care facilities nationwide struggling
with overcrowding and dated infrastructure, Portland's providers face similarly pressing
circumstances. Annually, patients make more than 200,000 emergency
room visits to Providence's
Portland area hospitals, including
an increasing number of individuals with mental health needs.
Tomorrow Starts Today will create more capacity
and innovation across Portland
through investments of $92 million in
expanded and re-imagined emergency departments at Providence St.
Vincent and Providence Portland and $85
million to expand critical cardiac care facilities,
including a new cardiac intensive care unit, at Providence St.
Vincent.
"Our emergency departments in Portland are staring down challenges that grow
more significant by the day," said Ray
Moreno, M.D., Providence St. Vincent chief medical officer.
"Far too often we are caring for people in hallways and turning
away ambulances due to overcrowding. Our patients, our caregivers,
and our communities deserve better."
Similar pressures are mounting for Providence
Heart Institute, whose facilities were not built to handle patients
who may spend weeks or even months in the cardiac intensive care
unit (CICU). "Providence has
proudly grown into one of the largest providers of complex cardiac
care on the West Coast and a national center of excellence, but the
patients we're seeing today have much more complex cardiac care
needs," said Dan Oseran, M.D., Providence Heart Institute
executive medical director. "This is our opportunity to re-imagine
cardiac care for the next 50 years and ensure that Portland remains a world-class destination for
heart care."
Tomorrow Starts Today will deliver transformative
changes for Providence patients,
including:
- Reduced or eliminated wait times in the emergency
department.
- Critical innovations and new facilities so Providence Heart
Institute can provide the very best in complex cardiac care to more
people as a national center of excellence.
- Improved safety, security, and comfort for patients and
caregivers.
- More lives saved and better outcomes in areas of urgent need,
including behavioral health, pediatrics, and stroke care.
- New flexible sites of care to accommodate more patients in
moments of crisis such as a pandemic or natural disaster, and
dedicated treatment rooms for people experiencing substance use
crises and related behavioral health issues.
The large and complex expansion and renovation
projects began in 2023 and are expected to be completed by 2027.
Today's announcement is the first time the entirety of Providence's capital improvement plans has
been shared with the public. Projects are being strategically
staggered in phases to maintain care capacity during
construction.
Andy and Nancy
Bryant are co-chairing the effort to raise funds for the
Providence St. Vincent emergency department, inspired by Andy and
other family members' care in that facility.
"The critical care we received from Providence is the best we have received
anywhere in the country," said the Bryants. "Now we want to
give the same gift to others. We strongly believe that there is no
more impactful investment you can make for Portland's future than donating to Tomorrow
Starts Today. We invite others to join us and help Providence reimagine care for our city to
ensure excellent care is available and accessible to all those who
need it."
The Bryants are joined in their early
support of this transformative campaign by other lead donors
including Tim and Mary Boyle, the
Lematta Family, Pat Reser and
Bill Westphal, Mark and Mary Stevens, JTMF Foundation, The
Chiles Foundation, The Zidell Family Foundation and others who have
helped raise more than $125 million
toward the campaign goal of $144
million in philanthropic funding.
"The fact that our community is rallying around
this campaign is truly inspiring to all of us who work on the front
lines providing care. We are so grateful," said Jeremy
Lynn, M.D., Providence
regional director of emergency services and Providence Portland
emergency department physician. "We got into this work so we could
help people on their worst day. We are excited to do that in
updated and expanded spaces that will allow us to provide better,
faster care for more people."
To learn more about the capital improvements and
join the campaign,
visit providencefoundations.org/tomorrow.
About Providence Foundations of
Oregon
Providence is a national, not-for-profit
Catholic health system compromising a diverse family of
organizations and driven by a belief that health is a human right.
The financial support of Providence donors is critical to continuing
groundbreaking research, bringing the latest technology and
equipment to our facilities, and improving the health of our
communities through programs that simply would not exist without
philanthropy. Learn more at www.ProvidenceFoundations.org
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SOURCE Providence Foundations of Oregon