Sanford Health, formerly Sioux Valley Hospitals & Health Systems, said it will receive $400 million over eight years from philanthropist T. Denny Sanford, chairman and chief executive officer of United National Corp., Sioux Falls, S.D. The gift, the largest single healthcare donation recorded by Indiana University’s Center on Philanthropy, will fund a 20-building expansion of Sanford Health’s Sioux Falls campus and finance five pediatric clinics across the U.S.
The donation will also back expansion of five existing research initiatives, create a sixth in pediatric health, and target a highly “promising area for focused medical research” by using funds to convene experts and attract federal research grants. The Sioux Falls-based system, which owns and manages 23 hospitals in four states, adopted the philanthropist’s name, effective Feb. 3.
Sanford previously donated at least $51 million to the system, including $20 million for expansion through the University of South Dakota School of Medicine, $15 million for a joint pediatric initiative with the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn., and the system’s planned Sanford Children’s Hospital, to which the businessman donated $16 million. Construction on the 62-bed children’s hospital is expected to finish in 2009 and cost roughly $52 million. -- by Melanie Evans
