NAPLES, Fla. – May 3, 2021 The Bill and Julia Van Domelen Foundation has awarded NCH Healthcare System a transformative gift of $5.7 million. This gift was offered to NCH specifically because of common initiatives between the Foundation and the NCH Healthcare System with the goal of keeping families closer to home by enhancing access to critical and specialized care for all women and children. The Bill and Julia Van Domelen Foundation have been instrumental in addressing challenges in our community by bringing organizations together to address common issues.
“With the support of generous donors, like the Bill and Julia Van Domelen Foundation, NCH intends to grow the services offered at the NCH Women’s and Children’s Pavilion,” said Paul Hiltz, President and CEO of the NCH Healthcare System. “This wonderful gift will allow NCH to expand, enhance and develop services that better allow us to care for the women and children in our community, and has opened the door to improve collaborations with other local healthcare agencies that we will work together with to ensure healthcare access in our community is the number one priority.”
“We wanted to choose a healthcare partner who is committed to providing quality care to everyone in Collier County including under-served families,” said Julia Van Domelen, Director of the Bill and Julia Van Domelen Foundation. “NCH’s commitment to making specialized care available right here at home so families can remain together during a complicated health issue, is precisely why we choose them to be the recipient of this gift.”
The funds provided from this gift will support the recruitment and hiring of high-priority staff positions to enhance patient care. NCH will have the opportunity to train operating room (OR) teams, emergency department (ED) healthcare workers, and inpatient staff to care for patients with a level of confidence that is obtained through simulation training.
The funds will also help raise the quality of care for NCH’s tiniest patients by elevating our current neonatal program to a level III NICU. These resources will also be used for expanding our fetal maternal medicine program and provide care that will aid soon-to-be-mothers with high-risk pregnancies. Further expansion of pediatric surgery and anesthesiology is also part of the plan, as well as growth in pediatric imaging.
Additionally, a portion of the gift will help Pediatric ED patients by creating more comfortable environments for children and teens with emotional, behavioral and mental health challenges.
“The generous support of community philanthropists ensures our families have access to the care they deserve,” said Kristin Mascotti, MD, Chief Medical Officer for the NCH Healthcare System. “We are so grateful to the Bill and Julia Van Domelen Foundation for making this enhancement of maternal and pediatric care possible.”
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