CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL: Announces $140M Fundraising Plan
Children's Hospital in San Diego is expected to announce today a 10-year, $140 million fundraising plan to coordinate health care for the region's children, the San Diego Union-Tribune reports. Children's Hospital President and CEO Blair Sadler said the money collected over the next decade will be "spent on efforts to lower the county's infant mortality rate, number of low birth-weight babies, incidence of pediatric homicide and suicide, instances of child abuse and number of unintentional injuries." The campaign also will raise funds for Healthy Families outreach, hoping to usher in the 100,000 eligible San Diego children who lack health insurance. The campaign is off to a good start, the Union- Tribune reports, with a $5 million pledge from the Children's Hospital Auxiliary and another $13 million from private donors. The funds will be allocated six ways: $75 million for the Children's Endowment, a research and indigent care unit; $20 million for patient care and technology upgrades; $20 million for a Children's Campus of Excellence; $5 million to rebuild the hospital's convalescent unit; $10 million for injury and illness prevention; and $10 million to build an education and research center. The move comes on the heels of the hospital's "Children's 2000" report, which found that children's programs at the county's hospitals are "fragmented between providers ... community-based organizations and public agencies." Already, Sadler said, physicians at Children's Hospital are trying to coordinate care in several area clinics and hospitals, at their request. "We don't need three or four pediatric intensive care units," he said (Clark, 5/19).
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