Visionary Fundraising for the Jackson Health Systems

 

 

Posted on Friday, 02.26.10

JACKSON MEMORIAL FOUNDATION

Helping hospital help others

BY ROLAND D. RODRIGUEZ

www.jmf.org

Afew days ago, with no discernable reason other than to create misdirection, the head of the SEIU at Jackson Health System presented a letter to the state attorney general including allegations regarding Jackson Memorial Foundation that were not only wrong, but incredibly wrong.

The fact is that in 1991, Miami-Dade was in a trauma crisis, with hospitals unwilling to meet the needs of the seriously injured or dying. In response to this crisis, a group of community leaders led by Jay Weiss created the Jackson Memorial Foundation -- a leadership that raised more than $20 million to create the Ryder Trauma Center and developed the half penny sales tax, which now supports Jackson.

Success was not supposed to happen. To some, we were simply a place where the poor and the undocumented came. Why help them? Fortunately, they badly underestimated our community. And, as a result, the Jackson Memorial Foundation has raised millions upon millions to help Jackson care for those in need.

Our Holtz Children's Hospital was created through the generosity of donors, especially Abel and Fana Holtz. It contains one of the world's top intensive care units for children -- the Carnival Cares for Kids Center -- supported through millions from Carnival Corp. and the Miami Heat. One floor above is the Taylor Learning Center, made possible by Jason Taylor's Foundation. For a decade, our Guardian Angels have raised millions to upgrade the children's hospital and purchase lifesaving equipment, such as a Fetal Imaging System, that allows surgery for babies in the womb. Through the efforts of the Women's Cancer League and Elizabeth and Mitchell Taylor we have the Taylor Breast Center, serving thousands of uninsured women annually.

Our Batchelor Urology Center and its million-dollar lithotripter were made principally possible through the generosity of George Batchelor's Foundation. Our nursing scholarships have helped Miami Dade College train some of the most dedicated nurses you could find anywhere. Jackson's mental health hospital benefits from the Frances Fields Gordon Endowment, helping a group who are the neediest.

Through Jackson's international program, started with a gift from Amedex/BUPA, we have been able to attract thousands of paying patients and add millions to Jackson's bottom line.

Even the mundane is made possible through our foundation, including the millions obtained through grants to put wind shutters throughout Jackson. Mundane, that is, until a hurricane hits the one hospital in Miami-Dade that can never shut down.

Our International Kids Fund (IKF) has saved the lives of hundreds of children from throughout the world whose intense diseases cannot be treated in their home country. Jackson provides the facilities, UM's Miller School of Medicine provides the physicians and our IKF Wonderfund finds the money. At this moment it struggles to bring dozens of children from Haiti, including Marlie Cassius, all of whom are stuck in Haiti without medical care and housing.

Our Golden Angels, generous citizens who give a minimum of $50,000 for Jackson's priorities, began with Pat Wallace and now number in the hundreds. And our independent Board of Directors organizes dedicated community leaders to fight for Jackson. When we began, there were those who said it couldn't be done. Fortunately our board is made up of those who instead say, ``It must be done.''

Next month, we'll proudly debut the Harvey & Roberta Chaplin Pediatric Emergency Room, renovated to help the thousands of kids who come to Holtz because they have no other place for care. Later in the year a new Pathology Laboratory will open, made possible through millions from the Coulter family. A new Thyroid Clinic has just been funded with our new partner Florida International University through the generosity of Serena and Leon Simkins.

These will not be the last of our projects, because the time will never come when such help is not needed. It is the nature of a hospital that cares for the sickest and disenfranchised. And always the Jackson Memorial Foundation will stand independently and proudly at Jackson's side, fighting to make our hospital better, stronger and one of the greatest institutions in South Florida, regardless of attacks by those who take us for granted.

Roland D. Rodriguez is president and CEO of Jackson Memorial Foundation.