Mayo Clinic Receives $15 Million Contribution to Build an Outpatient Pediatric Center in Rochester

Wednesday, December 14, 2005

ROCHESTER, Minn. — A $15 million gift from T. Denny Sanford, a South Dakota banker and businessman, is funding a new outpatient pediatric facility at Mayo Clinic. The Pediatric Center will house advanced medical and surgical pediatric subspecialty practices and technology. This is the largest gift to pediatric medicine in the clinic's history. The Mayo Clinic T. Denny Sanford Pediatric Center will be located in the Mayo Building in downtown Rochester. Construction will begin in 2006 with completion and occupancy scheduled for early 2007.

In addition to the facility, the gift also will include a named professorship at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, a named pediatric fellowship and an endowment for a professional research and education collaboration between Mayo Clinic and the Sanford Children's Hospital at Sioux Valley Hospital in Sioux Falls, S.D. Regional health care providers will be invited to participate in the educational activities.

"We are enormously grateful for Mr. Sanford's generosity and his interest in the health of young patients, and we are excited about a facility dedicated to that care," says Robert Jacobson, M.D., chair of the Department of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine at Mayo Clinic in Rochester. "Mayo Clinic has a long tradition of excellence in caring for the medical and surgical needs of children, and this gift will help carry that tradition into the future," adds Jacobson.

"I'm excited about this partnership with Mayo Clinic," says Sanford. "The pediatric center is part of a dream to ensure specialty care for young patients in one of the most respected health care settings in the world and to build a partnership with Sanford Children's Hospital in Sioux Falls."

"Mr. Sanford's contribution will enhance our ability to care for young patients," says Hugh Smith, M.D., chair of the Mayo Clinic Rochester Board of Governors. "One of our primary goals is to reintegrate our outpatient practice - that is, to bring together the many specialties that had become fragmented over the years because space was limited. Creating a unique space for pediatrics is an important step in that direction. Additionally, this center will provide physicians the opportunity to work together in the Mayo tradition of bringing a physician team to the patient in a central location. We are very pleased with Mr. Sanford's decision to join with Mayo Clinic in establishing this important center."

The collaboration between Mayo Clinic and the Sanford Children's Hospital in Sioux Falls will include development of elective rotations for residents in pediatrics and pediatric-related specialties. Joint research and education projects will focus on childhood diseases. An annual pediatric symposium will be instituted to concentrate on the newest medical and surgical care of children and will feature the results of the collaborative efforts between the two institutions. The first symposium will take place in Sioux Falls on May 18 - 19 with neonatal medicine as a theme.

Sanford is chair and president of United National Corporation and First Premier Bank, a holding company and regional bank, headquartered in Sioux Falls. He has a special interest in supporting organizations and groups that focus on the needs of children.

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