Goshen Health receives $12.5 million in fundraising campaign for building project
Goshen Health recently announced that its fundraising campaign from 2018 through 2022 has raised $12.5 million toward its current building project. The healthcare system is constructing a four-story patient tower that broke ground in November 2019 with a scheduled completion date in the spring of 2022.
“We are building the future of health care to meet the diverse needs of our growing community,” says Randy Christophel, Goshen Health President and Chief Executive Officer. “Never in its history has the hospital seen this level of philanthropic support from the community. We are humbled and incredibly grateful for these funds.”
The project is slated to cost $98 million and will offer numerous benefits including state-of-the-art infection control capabilities, minimizing exposure to infection and enhancing patient safety – especially important in a pandemic. The spacious rooms are designed to allow space for significant diagnostic and monitoring equipment to be brought to the bedside, enable multiple disciplines of Colleagues to actively interact with the patient and provide additional comfort for patients and their families.
“Medical equipment has changed drastically through the years,” adds Christophel. “The new building will have sophisticated electronic communication technology facilitating immediate feedback and information. And, we’ll have integrated medical alert and monitoring technology that will automatically populate critical information into the medical record and actively monitor patient safety, freeing caregivers to focus more on patient care. All of these advances will work together to provide a state-of-the-art healing environment for our patients.”
COVID-19 slows campaign progress
Over the past few years, the leaders of Goshen Health and Goshen Health Foundation have successfully initiated and executed the beginning phases of the fundraising campaign.
“Under usual circumstances, we seek out major gifts, gather momentum and then we move to a more public phase,” says Jim Caskey, Vice President of Goshen Health Foundation.
But in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic halted most of Goshen Health’s fundraising plans so the hospital could focus on more urgent needs. “Like many healthcare systems, Goshen Health was hit full force in 2020 by the pandemic and the tremendous needs of our communities,” says Caskey. “We needed to address these needs and set aside fundraising for a time.”
Caskey says that philanthropy must always be part of a community in which people take care of one another. “We need to protect and invest in each other as well as our healthcare services. There are short-term needs for our hospital, but we must also consider the long-term viability and ongoing needs of Goshen Health, our Colleagues and our community members. Continual support allows for excellent medical care for generations to come.”