Several vital pediatric services at Golisano Children’s Hospital will receive formative investments this year, thanks to philanthropist Tom Golisano’s $25M gift, which will be distributed as $5M over five years.

Golisano Children’s Hospital is part of the nonprofit University of Vermont Health system and the region’s only full-service children’s hospital. We serve tens of thousands of newborns, infants, toddlers, adolescents and teens with medical needs ranging from routine care to treatment of complex and life-altering injuries and illnesses. Our children’s hospital relies on philanthropic investments to help sustain many vital programs that can’t support themselves, fuel innovations that hold the best chance of improving children’s health, address emergent patient and family needs, and prepare for the future.

The first installment of Mr. Golisano’s generous gift is being put to work across multiple pediatric services and programs that were identified as priorities through critical, health system-wide analyses and feedback from the patients and families we serve. Following are some of the areas of care delivery and family support that will receive funding:

• Complex Care services for families with children facing highly complex medical needs (multiple significant chronic health problems that affect two or more body systems and often require ongoing subspecialty care and medical technology dependence). With the new funding, patient families will receive enhanced coordination of care services across providers and programs; shared, written care plans; and centralized lists of supportive resources and financial aid specific to their child’s needs.
• A pediatric oncology electronic health record system to replace the current paper-based system that calculates, tracks and manages patients’ chemotherapy needs and dosages. Evolving to an electronic system will ensure ongoing sustainability of the excellent quality, safety and effectiveness standards currently being met in our pediatric cancer program.
• Expanding pediatric allergy medicine services in our region. Vermont has very few clinicians trained in allergy and immunology, especially when it comes to the needs of infants and young children, which poses added burdens and costs for patients and families who often have to travel out of state to access specialty care. Funds will be used to create a new fully staffed program in pediatric allergy and immunology which will improve access and reduce barriers to care.
• Pediatric specialty care in upstate New York to help address the volume of pediatric patients who cannot access specialty care locally. Given the lack of pediatric subspecialists in upstate New York, on average, 35% of daily pediatric visits to the Golisano Children’s Hospital at UVM Health are patients from New York. Such long-distance travel often poses significant barriers for families in accessing the needed specialty care for their child. Efforts are underway to evaluate potential New York-based specialty care sites to provide New York pediatric patients with easier access to high-quality, child-friendly pediatric subspecialty care closer to home.
• Establish a dedicated neonatal transport service to bring critically ill newborns to Burlington’s Level III NICU, the only facility in Vermont and northern New York that provides intensive and critical care for neonates. Currently, transport-trained RNs and Respiratory Therapists must leave active patient assignments or come in from home when a transport is needed. This can create delays in that transport or the need to defer the transport and care to Albany or Dartmouth, even when the closest children’s hospital is ours. With a dedicated neonatal transport team, we can better meet the needs of vulnerable infants in our region and keep care closer to home. 

To explore ways to invest in high-need initiatives that serve local patients and families, contact Shelby McGarry, Shelby.McGarry@uvmhealth.org, or 802-999-8688 (mobile).