News and Events

Distinctive Past...Exceptional Future 2008 Capital Campaign
09/18/2008

We exist to serve our patients with compassionate health care of the highest quality

A Great Hospital in the Making

The major health-care complex known today as Union Hospital opened in 1892 as the Terre Haute Sanitarium in a farm house located at 7th Street and 8th Avenue. On August 11, 1892, the first patient was admitted to the 20-bed facility. The Sanitarium employed three people: a maid, a cook/laundress, and a combination of handyman, engineer, pharmacist, and orderly. Everyone else was a volunteer.

From the mid-1920's when the hospital nearly went bankrupt, to the merger and collaboration of churches and synagogue, to the joint capital campaign with St. Anthony's, the hospital has relied on the participation and generosity of area residents. The last major expansion was the building of the West facility. All of the buildings included a community-wide capital campaign and were required in order to meet the changing needs of the community and make room for the improvements in the health care industry.

Today's Union Hospital - An Extraordinary Medical Referral Center

Today, Union Hospital is a 245-bed medical referral center that serves a population of nearly 300,000 residents. In 2007, Union Hospital had 15,000 inpatient admissions, 350,000 outpatient visits, and nearly 46,000 emergency room visits. The hospital serves a vital role in the Wabash Valley as an independent, nonprofit, community-based hospital with a medical staff of nearly 300 physicians, representing 35 specialties and sub-specialties.

The hospital's operating expenses for 2007 were $315 million. During 2007 the Hospital provided some $22 million in charity care. The hospital annually invests about $7.5 million in patient education and an additional $1.4 million in medical professional education, including the cost of the Family Practice Residency Program.

With 2,200 employees and a payroll of $93 million, Union Hospital is the area's largest employer. The hospital is also a major consumer of local business services. In 2007, Union purchased $115 million in goods and services, a significant percentage directly benefiting the local economy.

A Culture of Quality

Assessing hospital quality is a complex and demanding task. Evaluating outcomes; choosing appropriate therapies; avoiding accidents and errors; satisfying patient and family requirements; setting, achieving, and surpassing multiple standards of care — all play a role in a conscientious institutional quality effort.

At Union Hospital, the commitment to quality is deep and abiding and the results have been remarkable.

"It's an exciting time at Union Hospital because we
have a conscientious, dedicated staff that can help
us save lives, and we're applying our resources
more and more effectively —we're seeing
improvements in quality every day."

Carol Roesch VP Patient Care

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Union Hospital Health Group: A Profile

Union Hospital is the largest entity of Union Hospital Health Group. The organization also includes West Central Community Hospital (WCCH) in Clinton, Indiana and a network of primary care and specialty physicians. Union Hospital is the largest provider of health services between Indianapolis and St. Louis, serving west central Indiana and eastern Illinois. Having a not-for-profit mission it provides quality care to all, regardless of the ability to pay. In the most recent survey of area residents, more consumers mentioned Union Hospital as their hospital of choice than all the other hospitals in the Wabash Valley combined.

Union strives to provide health-care services that are cost-effective, innovative, and responsive to the needs of the community. Union is equipped with the latest technology for diagnosis and treatment. It encourages a team approach to the delivery of health care — emphasizing quality, compassion, integrity, fairness, and fiscal responsibility.

Maintaining a hospital system of this size in a rapidly evolving and unpredictable health-care environment is a major challenge. Like all hospitals, Union Hospital must continually invest in buildings, technology, medical staff, and education to ensure that the right facilities, diagnostic and treatment technologies, and medical expertise are available and ready when a patient is admitted.

Over the past five years, the Union Hospital Campus has evolved into a Medical Center Campus containing numerous facilities housing mental health services, physician offices, an ambulatory surgical center, a comprehensive cancer clinic and a wide variety of other health services. All of these provide quality health care that is readily accessible to Wabash Valley residents.

The strength of Union Hospital over its long, storied history is the quality of those individuals who serve our patients, in many different ways. The Boards of Directors, the management teams, the medical staff and the service providers all have built a strong foundation and reputation for quality care that is provided with genuine compassion for the welfare of every patient. Those who live in the Wabash Valley enjoy the area and its charm. Individuals and business owners revel in the added plus of exceptional health care amenities offered to all residents, regardless of their ability to pay. They appreciate the quality of life Union Hospital adds to life in the "Valley."

Standards of care include treating patients like family as well as providing care with the highest level of professionalism. Over the years those associated with the hospital have displayed great pride at the privilege of working at Union Hospital. In spite of constant change in the health care industry — there is always something new on the horizon - excellence in service has become the consistent hallmark of the Hospital. The desire to be the best of any hospital in the country at providing patient services is a constant challenge. Now is the time to construct a facility that will permit exceptional quality of care to be matched by a facility capable of housing and facilitating that care.

The hospital has begun the largest construction effort in its 106-year history.

The project will relocate most inpatient and clinical services from the present-day hospital facility to a newly constructed and equipped 500,000 plus square foot complex. The new facility will include the emergency department, surgical suite, the intensive care unit (ICU), adult medical/surgical services, imaging, respiratory therapy, and many other clinical services. When all is completed there will be 380 private beds for patient care. A helipad for the arrival and transfer of seriously ill patients will be built on the roof.

When the new building opens in early 2010, the second project phase, and the focus of the capital campaign, will make major renovations to the vacated space for other departments, including maternity, pediatrics, and rehabilitation medicine. In this phase, additional outpatient private rooms will also be added to the existing hospital, and every patient in Union Hospital will be cared for in an up-to-date, newly equipped private room.

The cost of the overall project will be $185 million. To make the project feasible, the hospital will use a combination of bond financing, available hospital reserves, and gifts secured through the hospital's first major philanthropic campaign in decades. The campaign will be called "A Distinctive Past , An Exceptional Future" and aims to enlist the support of hundreds of the region's residents and businesses and the Hospital family. The goal of the campaign will be to raise at least $8 million in gifts and pledges. The effort will be conducted by the staff, board, and volunteers of Union Hospital and the Union Hospital Foundation.

The Essential Role of Philanthropy

As a nonprofit community hospital, Union Hospital has always benefited from the philanthropy of local residents and businesses in all of its past four major expansions, and has provided critical services to the community in return. Now the hospital will approach members of the community to secure the funds necessary to complete this project and provide a margin of excellence that will serve the needs of the Wabash Valley for generations to come. To this end, Union Hospital has begun its first major capital campaign in recent years. The Distinctive Past, An Exceptional Future capital campaign aims to enlist the support of many hundreds of the region's residents and businesses including the UHHG Family, and will encourage gift pledges to be completed over a five-year period. The goal of the overall campaign will be to secure at least $8 million in gifts and pledges including the Family Campaign. The $8,000,000 capital campaign will allow us to build value-added additions, complete shell spaces in the new facility and further renovate Union West.

The community's support of this endeavor is critical and we are confident that the community will respond in a very positive way to help in attaining our goal. Donors will have the option to designate their gift to a specific area of the project. Naming opportunities will be available in every area of the new building and the renovated areas. Examples of some of these options are as follows:

$5,000 Nursing Stations
$25,000 Private Patient Rooms
$30,000 Exam Rooms or Waiting Areas
$50,000 Elevator & Waiting Area
$1,000,000 Women's & Children's Services, Atriums or Pedestrian Walkways

The role of philanthropy is not only to complete the funding package, but also to affirm the community's involvement with Union Hospital as our independent, nonprofit, locally controlled health-care resource.
Union Hospital is a growing, high tech, exceptional quality organization. Its excellence is a direct reflection of community leadership, interest and support. This ambitious undertaking is an investment in quality of life for the entire Wabash Valley — a means not only of envisioning greatness, but of achieving it.

"The project we have begun here will yield huge advances in Union Hospital's ability to meet the health needs of the Wabash Valley for decades to come. We have made much progress here in recent years and the community is clearly very proud and supportive of the hospital. Now we need their generous gift support to complete this ambitious work. Every family in the region will benefit."

David R. Doerr, President and CEO
Union Hospital Health Group

Download Capital Campaign Brochure [pdf format 9mb]

 

 

 

 

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