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MIDDLEBURY COLLEGES PLEDGES $1,000,000 TO PORTER CAMPAIGN
Middlebury College President, Dr. John McCardell, Jr., joined by College Board Chairman Churchill Franklin and several other College trustees, announced today a commitment of $1,000,000 from Middlebury College the 75th Anniversary Campaign for Porter Hospital.
The commitment includes a $500,000 unrestricted pledge, plus an additional
$500,000 "challenge grant". The challenge grant will come to Porter as a dollar for dollar match once the campaign reaches the $3 million mark. Thus, for every dollar donated to the campaign beyond $3 million, the College will match it up to $500,000.
Including only the initial Middlebury College pledge of $500,000, Porter's campaign now stands at $1,938,884.
"We are deeply grateful to Middlebury College for this significant pledge in support of this vitally
important project to expand and improve our patient care facilities," said PMC President, James L. Daily. "The challenge grant will be vital
in helping Porter reach beyond our initial fund-raising goal and, we believe, help to inspire additional gifts to this important campaign."
The capital campaign was first introduced to Porter board members, physicians and auxiliary members back in June and received an initial boost from a $250,000 pledge from the PMC Auxiliary.
During the past six months, individual Auxiliary and Porter board members have pledged $191,886 to the campaign, medical staff gifts total $216,700 to date and other major commitments totaling more than $700,000 have been received from a small number of area business, service organizations and individual friends of Porter. The capital campaign will support a $14 million construction project which will address a variety of serious and chronic facility issues according to Daily.
Specifically, the Porter Surgical Suite, built 25 years ago and housing two traditional "operating rooms", does not have the capacity to handle either the volume or variety of outpatient surgical procedures now available at Porter Hospital. With 14 surgeons representing seven areas of surgical specialties, these facilities (which were designed for two general surgeons in 1975) are inadequate from a variety of perspectives including insufficient "Recovery Room" space for
the patients.
Additionally, the majority of surgical procedures today are performed on an outpatient ("same day surgery") basis and do not require resources available in a traditional operating room. Thus, plans calls for the creation of a new unit offering several "Special Procedure Rooms" to be used for laparascopic, laser or other outpatient surgical procedures that can be performed more efficiently and quickly in such a room designed for this purpose.
Additional "Recovery Rooms" also will be added to address both current surgical volume and projected future growth.
The new wing will also be the home of Porter's first "Birthing Center" which will offer area families with a home-like environment within the confines of a community hospital with immediate access to medical equipment and technology if required.
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