UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH ALABAMA
IMPACTING health together
2023
Inspiring Youth Success Project Inspire, a mentorship and training program for at-risk youth, seeks to curb gun violence in our community while preparing teens for success after high school.
Dear Friends of USA Health, A sense of excitement and progress is sweeping through our academic health system. There’s so much to take pride in: new facilities, a state-of-the-art surgery center, hospital renovations, innovative research, and bright, aspiring medical professionals. The acquisition of Providence Hospital and its physician practices is a watershed moment for us. It expands the scope for patient access and provides more educational opportunities for the next generation of healthcare providers. Your contributions provide the resources that benefit our community today and into the future. It is our pleasure to present the 2023 Impact Report that details our progress aimed at better serving our mission to help people lead longer, better lives. Your role in our shared success is truly pivotal and we extend a heartfelt appreciation for all you do.
Sincerely, Owen Bailey, MSHA, FACHE Chief Executive Officer Senior Associate Vice President for Medical Affairs
John V. Marymont, M.D., M.B.A. Vice President for Medical Affairs Dean, Frederick P. Whiddon College of Medicine at the University of South Alabama
Project Inspire was established in 2017 by University Hospital trauma surgeon Ashley Williams Hogue, M.D. It is a hospital-based injury prevention program which combines trauma center exposure, mentorship and career development. Through an ongoing partnership with the Strickland Youth Center, Project Inspire aims to help participants to see themselves through a different lens - one of empowerment. Each new class of Project Inspire students is identified by the Mobile County Juvenile Court system as a group of candidates who stand to benefit the most from the program. During the 10week program, students participate in career planning activities such as ACT/GED preparation, resume development, mock job interviews, and training in Basic Life Support and Stop The Bleed. They also tour Bishop State Community College and learn about the many opportunities available to them through the various departments. They’re encouraged to formulate a vision for their future careers and develop an action plan. “If we can impact one member of our community, we’ve made a huge difference,” Williams Hogue says. “If, then, that person has a positive impact on another, we’ve doubled our progress. We’ve ignited change. Our participants will be the ambassadors of change in our community.”
Make a gift. Change a life.
You can support any aspect of USA Health. Visit usahealthsystem.com/givenow to make a gift.
Healing through art therapy When patients close their eyes, their art takes them somewhere else, far away from the steady drip of their chemotherapy infusion. Thanks to a generous donation from the Zoe Foundation, patients going through chemotherapy treatment at USA Health Mitchell Cancer Institute have another tool (or paintbrush) in their holistic care toolbox because of the gift of art therapy. The Zoë Foundation is committed to providing a creative and positive outlet for all cancer patients. It was founded by Kim Hammonds, a breast cancer patient who experienced the gift of art as an outlet while receiving treatment 20 years ago. Through her battle with cancer, she vowed to give others the same meaningful gift through her
foundation. Upon her passing in 2022, Kim’s legacy is now continued by her husband, Rod, and daughter, Zoë. The Mitchell Cancer Institute is a recipient of the Zoë Foundation’s support. Through this donation, MCI has a dedicated art therapist in Margaret Wielbut. She shows up with a happy bright yellow cart of art supplies several days a week at the Mobile and Fairhope locations, ready to take patients mentally elsewhere. Jennifer, a patient at MCI said, “I already loved doing crafts at home with my grandchildren, and having the opportunity to complete crafts while receiving my treatment helps to ease my mind and it helps to pass the time. The art therapy program has helped me feel more at ease.”
IMPACT by the numbers OCTOBER 2022 - SEPTEMBER 2023
$9,976,827 3,334
It’s a way to express complicated emotions. There’s an emotional healing in stoking one’s creativity - especially when the pains of the real world feel too hard. “It satisfies something deep within us,” Wielbut says. “Without the generosity of the gift, we would not be able to awaken patients’ creative juices, and we would never learn the beauty of communication through art.” This program continues to thrive with additional patients engaging in the program each week. For those who want to share their masterpieces, their artwork hangs in the infusion suite and an adjacent hallway, brightening other patients’ time at MCI. It lifts spirits and enhances positivity during the winding journey towards healing.
raised to support clinical programs, research, access to care, and education
number of gifts
772
new donors
Providing peace of mind
Like many families, March of 2020 upturned life as Andy and Michelle Gilich knew it. After having their daughter, Ansley, evaluated at their local ER in Ocean Springs, Mississippi, the family was sent to USA Health Children’s & Women’s Hospital. Their 3-year-old needed to be checked out by a pediatric specialist — and fast. The Gilich family’s seismic shift came not from a COVID-19 diagnosis, but a cancer diagnosis. Their daughter was admitted to Children’s & Women’s Hospital for 10 days to receive her first round of treatment. That time was bookended by two very different realities: They entered the hospital in relative normalcy, but emerged to a deadly pandemic. Ansley’s compromised immune system seemed much more threatened with the backdrop of a novel coronavirus that had no treatment at the time. Fortunately, Ansley’s diagnosis was the most common type of childhood cancer, and her positive prognosis gave the family great hope. Grateful for the compassionate care their daughter was receiving at Children’s & Women’s Hospital, they wanted to pay it forward. The Gilich family created the Ansley Foundation and looked for ways to make a difference. After one particularly frightening ER visit during a COVID-19 spike in the community, they had an idea. Sick with a blood infection, Ansley and her parents arrived to a packed waiting room at the hospital’s ER in Mobile. After waiting alongside children presumably sick with COVID, they were led to a standard room. Michelle and Andy knew that Ansley’s compromised immune system could barely
handle a common cold, much less a case of COVID. When the Giliches learned about plans for the new Pediatric Emergency Center (PEC), they asked about an isolation room so the sickest patients might have a safer space. The answer was yes. “A special isolation room would have given us such peace of mind if we’d had this option when Ansley was in treatment,” said Andy. “It was the one missing piece.” The Ansley Foundation made a donation to bring the isolation room to reality. Michelle is quick to point out how the positive pressure room will help families: “The room has its own air system that doesn’t circulate air from the rest of the emergency department and its own restroom so the exposure to germs is at a minimum. It will be a safe place for hematology/ oncology patients, along with other immunocompromised patients, so they can feel safe when they need emergency care.” Ansley’s experience also led to a change in protocol for oncology patients receiving emergency treatment. Michelle said. “This addition, along with a change in protocol for
We believe great things begin by sharing gratitude. You can make a gift in honor of a care team member at usahealthsystem.com/givenow.
emergency care for our children, will fill the one missing puzzle piece to make Children’s & Women’s Hospital second to none for treating our Gulf Coast children in need.” The Gilich family’s intentional generosity has had a positve effect on patients and their families. It isn’t abstract support it’s right here, right now. This isolation room is the epitome of that generosity. At its core, the Ansley Foundation supports those who have been touched by childhood cancer, predominantly those who need help putting one foot in front of the other. “Philanthropic giving that is dedicated to specific needs has an immediate impact,” says Andy. Michelle adds, “A cancer diagnosis is lifealtering. We always said that if Ansley was diagnosed, and we would have had no idea how we were going to pay our bills on top of it, it would be unimaginable. So that continues to be our drive with the Ansley Foundation, to remove one thing that families have to worry about.”
EXPANDING AND ENHANCING ACCESS TO CARE
USA Health Providence Hospital and its clinics are now part of USA Health
349 14 1,800 hospital beds
new clinics
associates, providers and physicians joined USA Health
Construction projects completed in FY 2023
Transforming pediatric care The Pediatric Emergency Center at USA Health Children’s & Women’s Hospital is the only healthcare facility in the region offering specialized care roundthe-clock with a dedicated staff of pediatric emergency medicine physicians. In January 2024, the newly expanded and upgraded Pediatric Emergency Center will open its doors with more than double the space of the current emergency department. The new facility will enhance care for patient needs with: • Behavioral health rooms and a sensory room • A redesigned ambulance bay to reduce transport time for critically-ill patients • Air handling systems to control the spread of diseases to protect individuals with chronic illnesses • Social workers and child life specialists dedicated to emergency patients
Baldwin County Surgery Center
Remodeled Mother/Baby Unit at Children’s & Women’s Hospital
West Mobile Medical Office Building
UNDER CONSTRUCTION Children’s & Women’s Hospital Pediatric Emergency Center opening January 2024
We’re proud to take regional pediatric care to a new level. And we want you to be a part of it. Make your gift to the Pediatric Emergency Center today!
University Hospital operating room expansion opening early 2024
2022-23 EVENT HIGHLIGHTS
2022
615
attendees
216,098
$
Presented by
raised to fund research and clinical needs at USA Health
2023
400+ $ 47,026
attendees
raised to fund research and clinical needs at USA Health Join us next year!
March 21 You help make a difference.
Make your year-end gift at usahealthsystem.com/givenow. 2023
2023
more than
700 runners
32 $ 27,605 teams
Over the past 16 years, nearly
900,000
$
amount raised
raised in support of gynecologic cancer research, clinical trials and outreach at the MCI
Presented by
Presented by
College of Medicine Roundup Training the next generation of physicians is one of our responsibilities as the region’s only academic health system.” – John Marymont, M.D., M.B.A., dean of the Whiddon College of Medicine and vice president for medical affairs at the University of South Alabama.
New urology residency program The urology residency program launched in July. Residents will spend time training in general urology/ surgery, robotics, pediatric urology, female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgery, trauma and urologic oncology at USA Health. Urology is one of the most sought-after specialities for residency applicants. “We’ve made incredible progress expanding our practice and fulfilling our mission as part of an academic health system,” said Christopher Keel, D.O., interim chair of the department of urology and director of the new residency program, a boardcertified urologist.
Newly expanded hematology and medical oncology fellowship The three-year fellowship program began July 1 with four medical oncology fellows transitioning to the hematology and medical oncology program and two new fellows joining the program. For the past five years, USA Health’s medical oncology fellowship program has accepted two applicants annually to the two-year program, which provides training at the USA Health Mitchell Cancer Institute (MCI) and University Hospital in Mobile. Daisy Escobar, M.D., worked in clinical trials at the Mitchell Cancer Institute before medical school at the Whiddon College of Medicine and an internal medicine residency at USA Health. This year she transitioned to the expanded program for her third fellowship year. “To see how this program continues to grow and expand is a true testament of the impact that the MCI has,” Escobar said.
WHAT TO GIVE GIFTS OF ASSETS AND PROPERTY
GIFTS OF INSURANCE A gift of your life
Donating appreciated
insurance policy is an
securities, including
excellent way to make
stocks or bonds
a gift to charity. If you have a life insurance
Donating part or all of
policy that has
your unused retirement
outlasted its original
assets such as a gift
purpose, consider
from your IRA, 401(k),
making a gift of
403(b), pension or other
your insurance policy.
tax-deferred plan Donating appreciated real estate, such as a home, vacation property, undeveloped land, farmland, ranch or commercial property
GIFTS OF CASH A gift of cash is a simple and easy way for you to make a gift. Gifts of $5,000 or more may be paid over a 5-year period.
HOW TO GIVE IRA CHARITABLE ROLLOVER*
BEQUEST You designate USA
If you are 70 1/2 or
Health as the beneficiary
older, you can use your
of your asset by will,
individual retirement
trust or beneficiary
account (IRA) to support
designation form.
USA Health. Direct up to $100,000 to USA Health through your IRA Charitable Rollover gift. *Gifts made by required minimum distribution (RMD) should be postmarked by December 1 to allow sufficient time for receipt and deposit by the IRS deadline.
BENEFICIARY DESIGNATION GIFTS You can designate us as a beneficiary of a retirement, investment or bank account, or your life insurance policy.
New Frederick P. Whiddon College of Medicine We’re building the future home of the next generation of USA’s medical trailblazers
$200
million goal
$155.2 million raised in gifts,
pledges and government funding
2026
Anticipated completion
Make a gift and double your impact! Give the gift of a 21st-century medical education. Your generosity will support: State-of-the-art gross anatomy suite for human dissection on cadavers, as well as simulation/ medical robots
Modern learning studios of flexible classrooms designed for active learning, group work and peer collaboration, as well as independent study Culinary medicine program utilizing food as medicine, combining the science of nutrition with healthy lifestyle choices
For a limited time, an anonymous donor is matching all gifts up to $500,000, toward the Whiddon College of Medicine building fund.
“The USA Whiddon College of Medicine laid the foundation that my medical education was built upon and I am proud to give back to the institution that gave me so much. I encourage you to think about how the Whiddon College of Medicine has impacted your life and consider making a gift to support the training of medical students for generations to come.” – Dr. Ben Craven, class of 1990, the first COM alumnus to make a personal investment in the new Whiddon College of Medicine through a room naming
Make a gift online: usahealthsystem.com/givenow If you do not wish to receive fundraising requests from USA Health, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH ALABAMA
please email development@southalabama.edu.