AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) – The Wellstar Children’s Hospital of Georgia will soon become the Wellstar Golisano Children’s Hospital of Georgia, thanks to a generous donation.
The $50 million donation comes from Tom Golisano, founder of Paychex, and is the largest donation in Wellstar’s history.
In honor of Golisano’s donation, the hospital will be renamed the Wellstar Golisano Children’s Hospital of Georgia.
The children’s hospital will also join the Golisano Children’s Alliance, a national consortium of 12 leading children’s hospitals.
Officials say joining the alliance opens opportunities for new partnerships, expanded innovation and sharing best practices to further advance children’s health and wellness.
CHOG is the only member hospital in all of Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee and North Carolina.
“We are deeply grateful to Mr. Golisano for his extraordinary gift to improve the health and well-being of children in Georgia and across the country. We are honored to be among the handful of hospitals nationwide that have earned his transformative support,” said Ketul J. Patel, president and CEO of Wellstar Health System.
Officials say this donation strengthens Wellstar’s position as a national leader in pediatric care, starting with the creation of a new, state-of-the-art Pediatric Cardiac Intensive Care Unit.
Dr. Valera Hudson, pediatrician and chief of Wellstar Children’s Hospital of Georgia, said the investment will accelerate the hospital’s ability to meet children’s health needs.
“We have the best job in the world. We come to work every day to think about how we’re going to improve the health of children. And this investment just allows us to accelerate the pace at which we’re able to meet some of those needs,” Hudson said. “This $50 million specifically is earmarked to help us with building a state of the art pediatric cardiac intensive care unit to allow us to continue to grow that program and provide those services for children here locally in the Augusta area, as well as beyond throughout the state.”
Hudson said the number of children receiving heart condition services has grown, causing the facility to outgrow its current intensive care unit.
“We have grown the number of children that we are providing services for who need services for heart conditions. And we have outgrown our intensive care unit because we have so many patients that are now part of the heart program that our capacity is challenged with general ICU patients plus the heart ICU patients,” Hudson said.
The hospital already has renovations in progress, including expanding behavioral and mental health services and renovating rooms on one of the medical-surgical floors to increase the number of ICU beds.
Hudson said the goal is to never turn a child away due to a lack of space or services.
“Our goal is to never have to turn our child away because we don’t have space or the services that they need,” Hudson said.
There are 11 other hospitals in the Golisano Children’s Alliance. Children’s hospitals that previously received donations and joined the Golisano Children’s Alliance include the Golisano Children’s Hospital of Buffalo (NY), the Golisano Children’s Hospital in Fla., Penn State Health Children’s Hospital, the University of Kentucky Children’s Hospital and the University of Maryland Children’s Hospital.
“The team at Wellstar Children’s Hospital of Georgia has a deep commitment to advancing pediatric care, expanding access and investing in innovation. I’m proud to support their work and to welcome them into the Golisano Children’s Alliance as we continue building a collaborative network focused on improving outcomes for children nationwide,” said Golisano.
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