New Leading for Life Initiative Prepares to Amplify Donor Impact
Leading for Life isn’t just LifeBridge Health’s new philanthropy campaign. It’s a bold, multi-year initiative designed to transform the donor experience.
“Our donors are innovators, leaders and nurturers,” says Julie Cox, vice president and chief development officer at LifeBridge Health. “Leading for Life will give our donors more opportunities to lead from the front, empower their communities and change real lives.”
To that end, Leading for Life will replace the traditional, project-by-project approach to fundraising with a single, comprehensive philanthropy platform that will allow donors to more easily play a role in dozens of projects over the next five years, including patient experience enhancements, facility renovations, physician recruitment and retention, and research funding. Technology will also be a major focus of the systemwide initiative.
“With Leading for Life, we’ll have the resources to futureproof our hospitals by building technological innovation into our very infrastructure,” says Neil Meltzer, president and CEO of LifeBridge Health. “Every gift will be a generational investment in the community that will allow us to not only deliver next-level care now—but also 10, 20 and 30 years from now.”
But with great vision comes great responsibility. Under the five-year Leading for Life initiative, LifeBridge Health intends to raise $200 million in community donations—essentially doubling its current annual fundraising revenue. Cox, for one, has no doubt that the community will rally behind the cause.
“I am constantly in awe of our community’s generosity and selflessness when it comes to supporting LifeBridge Health,” she says. “Our supporters recognize how much the community has given them, and they want to give back. If there’s ever been a time and a place for donors to leave their legacy, now is the time and this is the place, because their gifts will change so many lives, for so many years to come.”
Leading for Life Projects Include:
The Mandy & Dennis Weinman Cancer Building — A Patient-Centered Facility Within the Alvin & Lois Lapidus Cancer Institute
Currently, our cancer services are located in different parts of Sinai Hospital and the LifeBridge Health system. Thanks to a generous $5 million gift by Mandy and Dennis Weinman, our new cancer building will provide fully integrated care in a single facility.
The Mandy & Dennis Weinman Cancer Building will be able to accommodate the latest technology in an aesthetically pleasing, patient-centered environment where patients can see specialists, get infusions and radiation, and access other supportive services. The building will also bring pediatric cancer services together.
The three-level building is being designed in conjunction with clinicians, current and former patients, and medical and frontline staff, incorporating workflows and desired features. It will include 32 adult infusion bays, 16 adult exam spaces, seven pediatric infusion bays, six pediatric exam spaces, a renovated radiation oncology suite, a dedicated infusion pharmacy, complementary care spaces, a resource center, a meditation center and community spaces including a teaching kitchen and an appearance center.
Sinai Hospital Emergency Department
The new Sinai Hospital ED will allow us to provide optimal care for the substantial number of patients who seek our care. Architects worked in collaboration with ED staff to create a space that allows them to provide better care to patients. For example, wider corridors make it easier to navigate stretchers through hallways. Substantial nurse collaboration stations will allow clinicians to work on cases together while facing patients, instead of turning their backs. Bigger patient rooms will accommodate more equipment, make it easier for staff to provide care, and make the ED more comfortable for families and caregivers at a very stressful time.
Planned renovations and additions include universal and larger adult care treatment rooms, expanded trauma bays, an expanded behavioral health wing, a pediatric wing, and a new intake/triage/results pending suite, ambulance intake wing, lab, and radiology suite, along with a second-floor addition accommodating all ED administrative functions. The Herman & Walter Samuelson Foundation has named the emergency department with multiple gifts totaling $4.5 million. Recently, Barry and Lisa Stoler named the pediatric emergency department with a second impactful gift to this critical project for children.
Anticipated completion date: December 2024
Regional Medical Campus
The George Washington University (GW) School of Medicine and Health Sciences and LifeBridge Health have established GW’s first regional medical campus (RMC) at Sinai Hospital. In each cohort, up to 30 third- and fourth-year medical students will complete the clinical phase of their medical program at Sinai Hospital.
The new campus gives GW medical students the opportunity to train in a community-focused health system emphasizing primary and continuity care in a population health environment. The RMC also offers a smaller, tightly knit learning environment with direct access to faculty physicians and hands-on clinical experience at a single site. Additionally, each RMC student automatically receives a scholarship for the last two years of medical school. Special thanks to the Herman & Walter Samuelson Foundation, the Kahlert Foundation and Louis & Phyllis Friedman for their support of scholarships.
The curriculum at the RMC is the same as the main GW campus, using the same learning objectives and methods of assessment. However, at the RMC, students can enhance their clinical learning experience through participation in population health initiatives.
It is anticipated that the relationships students build during their clinical training may lead to their continued training in LifeBridge Health graduate medical education programs or employment as future LifeBridge Health physicians.
Expanded Simulation Lab
As part of our ongoing commitment to education, LifeBridge Health is expanding our medical simulation labs at Carroll, Northwest and Sinai hospitals.
With on-site simulation labs, healthcare professionals can learn and practice procedures in a safe, gconvenient environment. Medical students can learn how to work as a team and master skills through repetition securely under realistic conditions.
Learn more about Leading for Life and join the initiative here! Please call Julie E. Cox, F.A.H.P., at 410-601-GIFT (4438) to make a philanthropic gift.