The announcement was made on Wednesday evening at a campaign kick-off celebration dinner on Rush's campus by Richard M. Jaffee, a Rush trustee who chairs Rush's capital campaign. The event was held on the site where a new acute care hospital will be built as part of a comprehensive, seven-year redevelopment of the Rush campus. The site is immediately east of Rush's existing Atrium hospital building.
The event was attended by about 600 people, including Mayor Richard M. Daley, other civic leaders, donors, volunteers and friends of Rush.
Marvin J. Herb has been an active member of Rush's board of trustees since 1996. He serves on the board's Facilities Committee, the Rush University Board of Overseers, and on the Leadership Committee for the Rush Heart and Vascular Institute. The gift is from the Herb family, including his wife Judy and two sons Jon and Tom, and Tom's wife, Wendy. Herb is chairman of Herbco, LLC. Until 2001, he was the owner, chairman and CEO of the Coca-Cola Bottling Company of Chicago, which was the largest independent Coca-Cola bottler in the country with bottling operations in Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, New York, and Pennsylvania, before he sold the company.
"Rush has a vision for health care that combines compassionate, skilled doctors and other caregivers with excellent facilities and innovative technology, all designed around patients and their families," said Herb. "Medicine is changing, and Rush has a plan that will take advantage of what is new and what is around the corner in clinical care, research and medical education."
"The Herb Family gift is a truly historic and remarkable commitment to Rush," said Dr. Larry J. Goodman, president and CEO of Rush. "Their generosity will be forever remembered and appreciated not only by Rush but also by future generations of patients who will benefit from care provided by our staff in our new facilities."
The gift is one of the two largest donations ever made to Rush. The Herb gift brings the total amount pledged or given to Rush to $167 million since the silent phase of the fund- raising campaign began in January 2004. The seven year campaign, "It's How the Future of Medicine Should Be," has a goal of $300 million. In May 2005, John M. Boler and his wife Mary Jo donated $20 million to Rush to fund the Mary Jo and John Boler Centers for Advanced Imaging that will be located in the new facilities.
The Herb gift will be used for specific facilities to be identified later, and will also recognize two Rush physicians, internist Dr. Joseph J. Hennessy and cardiologist Dr. Clifford J. Kavinsky, who provided care to Herb. The Herb Family-Joseph J. Hennessy, MD, Endowed Scholarships will be established in Rush Medical College and awarded to students with a demonstrated interest in practicing primary care medicine. One of the new cardiac catheterization laboratories in the new facilities will be named the Herb Family-Clifford J. Kavinsky, MD, Cardiac Catheterization Laboratory, in recognition of the outstanding care provided by Dr. Kavinsky.
Rush Plans to Transform its Campus
In spring 2004, Rush revealed its plans for the most comprehensive construction and facilities renovation program in its history. Over the next seven years, Rush will build a new hospital facility, an ambulatory care building devoted to orthopedics, and a new centralized power plant. Rush will renovate the Atrium, Kellogg and Professional Office buildings, build and improve parking, and eventually remove some of the oldest structures on campus.
The new hospital will incorporate a brand new concept called an "interventional platform." Two floors extending from the new hospital into the renovated Atrium building will be devoted to surgery, imaging and specialty procedures. This includes new, larger operating rooms that can accommodate more specialized equipment and technology, including imaging equipment and robotics. Nearby will be the facilities and equipment required for interventional radiology, cardiology and neurosurgery, fostering increased collaboration and a multidisciplinary approach for specialists who are doing similar procedures. The interventional platforms will locate key services close to one another on two easily accessible levels, minimizing the need for patients and their families to travel to multiple locations in the medical center. This innovative concept is important to Rush's goal of reorienting its facilities and campus around the patient.
Perkins +Will, architects for the Rush project, have extensive experience in the health care industry and with large academic medical centers, including UCLA Medical Center and Johns Hopkins Hospital, which also have facilities replacement projects.
Rush's new hospital also will include astate-of-the art emergency services facility designed to care for victims of major catastrophes. It will be named the McCormick Tribune Center for Advanced Emergency Response in recognition of the foundation's $7.5 million contribution in 2004. Rush and the John H. Stroger Jr. Hospital in 2002 were named bioterrorism preparedness Centers of Excellence by the Chicago Department of Public Health. Each hospital has received grants to improve hospital capabilities in preparedness planning, disease detection and surveillance, infection control, communications, collaborations, education and training, and more.
The campus redevelopment also includes implementation of a new information technology system. New electronic software applications (Epic) will ensure the integration of clinical and financial information, providing streamlined registration and scheduling, faster and more accurate test results and real-time access to complete medical histories. "The potential for advanced information technologies to improve patient safety, aid in swift diagnosis and treatment, and allow patients and families a more substantial role in health care is tremendous," according to Dr. Goodman. "By planning and launching our facilities project in conjunction with the implementation of our new software applications, we can create a dynamic new healing environment that empowers caregivers to provide even more effective treatments and diagnoses," he said.
The estimated $810 million Rush project will be financed through a variety of sources including philanthropy, income from operations, federal and local grants, debt financing and private funds for the ambulatory care building. Construction will begin in 2007 with the new ambulatory care building and power plant facility. Construction of the new hospital, including the new emergency medicine center, is expected to begin in 2008. Renovations on the existing Atrium and Kellogg buildings will follow.
In addition to the gifts from the Herb Family, John and Mary Jo Boler, and the McCormick Tribune Foundation, Rush has received the following major gift or pledges for the current campaign: $13 million in unrestricted support from an anonymous donor; $10 million in pledges from the Woman's Board of Rush to create a Woman's Board Heart and Vascular Center; and a $10 million pledge from the Rush medical staff and faculty, the largest medical staff gift in Rush's history.
Funds raised from the $300 million capital campaign will be allocated as follows: $180 million for the Rush campus transformation project; $70 million for research and education; and $50 million to enhance existing clinical and community programs.
Rush's campus plans were developed after extensive study of Rush's current facilities and future needs. This led to the decision to invest in new facilities designed for the future of patient care, rather than investing in aging facilities that would not provide the adaptability and longevity of the new facilities.
Rush will seek certification from the U.S. Green Building Council for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEEDS certification).