Roths pledge $1 million for Mercy campaign
By Molly Montag Journal staff writer | Posted: Wednesday, February 13, 2008
SIOUX CITY -- A local businesswoman gave Mercy Medical Center's $15 million capital campaign a big shot in arm Tuesday when she pledged a $1 million donation to improvements at the Sioux City campus.
The campaign, the first of it's kind in the hospital's history, will fund a new 6,000-square-foot Intensive Care Unit, an electrophysiology lab and the purchase of a highly specialized surgical robot.
Regina Roth, BPI executive vice president and honorary chair for the campaign, announced the donation Tuesday at a reception for the campaign's public unveiling. She and her husband, BPI founder and CEO Eldon Roth, will donate $500,000 outright and an additional $500,000 in matching funds to the project.
The Roths' gift brings the total amount raised to nearly $11.5 million. Mercy's parent company, Trinity Health, pledged $9 million of that amount.
Paul Dougherty, Mercy's president and CEO, said the new facilities and equipment are critical to maintain the advanced technologies that will keep patients from leaving Sioux City to find the treatments at facilities in Omaha and Sioux Falls.
"This is a landmark event in the history of our hospital," he said.
Although the campaign will extend over a three-year period, officials said they hoped to gain the majority of the pledges in the next four months.
The campaign will focus on three major improvement projects:
Construction on the new $10 million ICU is slated to begin this summer on the sixth floor of the Heart Center. The existing ICU lab will be used until the new one is finished and will then be renovated into a cardiovascular surgical ICU.
The $2 million da Vinci robot will be used for a variety of surgeries. The device offers doctors a three-dimensional viewing screen and 10-fold zoom lens to operate robotic arms. Doctors say this device will allow for faster healing and less pain.
The $3 million electrophysiology lab will allow doctors to do a variety of procedures treating the heart's electrical system, including ablation. Doctors often use that technique to scar and isolate the malfunctioning area of the heart to treat arrhythmia. Mercy officials estimated 300 to 400 people leave Siouxland each year to have this procedure.
The campaign, the first of it's kind in the hospital's history, will fund a new 6,000-square-foot Intensive Care Unit, an electrophysiology lab and the purchase of a highly specialized surgical robot.
Regina Roth, BPI executive vice president and honorary chair for the campaign, announced the donation Tuesday at a reception for the campaign's public unveiling. She and her husband, BPI founder and CEO Eldon Roth, will donate $500,000 outright and an additional $500,000 in matching funds to the project.
The Roths' gift brings the total amount raised to nearly $11.5 million. Mercy's parent company, Trinity Health, pledged $9 million of that amount.
Paul Dougherty, Mercy's president and CEO, said the new facilities and equipment are critical to maintain the advanced technologies that will keep patients from leaving Sioux City to find the treatments at facilities in Omaha and Sioux Falls.
"This is a landmark event in the history of our hospital," he said.
Although the campaign will extend over a three-year period, officials said they hoped to gain the majority of the pledges in the next four months.
The campaign will focus on three major improvement projects:
Construction on the new $10 million ICU is slated to begin this summer on the sixth floor of the Heart Center. The existing ICU lab will be used until the new one is finished and will then be renovated into a cardiovascular surgical ICU.
The $2 million da Vinci robot will be used for a variety of surgeries. The device offers doctors a three-dimensional viewing screen and 10-fold zoom lens to operate robotic arms. Doctors say this device will allow for faster healing and less pain.
The $3 million electrophysiology lab will allow doctors to do a variety of procedures treating the heart's electrical system, including ablation. Doctors often use that technique to scar and isolate the malfunctioning area of the heart to treat arrhythmia. Mercy officials estimated 300 to 400 people leave Siouxland each year to have this procedure.
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