Penn State Children's Hospital - Penn State Cancer Center

Over the past thirty years, our Penn State Children's Hospital has become a national center for pediatric research and medical education, and a regional referral center for children needing specialized care. We serve the most populous rural state in the country, with almost one million children within our primary referral area. Last year, there were nearly 6,000 admissions to Penn State Children's Hospital and more than 250,000 outpatient visits.

Penn State Children's Hospital is home to some of the nation's top specialists and most sophisticated medical technologies. The Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, a state-of-the-art facility with the highest possible classification (Level III), is one of the few nationwide with an extracorporeal membrane ventilation system. Research conducted at the Medical Center is having an impact on pediatric care around the country. Our researchers and physicians are also leaders in the field of pediatric oncology, participating in a high percentage of clinical trials.

Penn State Children's Hospital connects children with both the caregivers and the cutting-edge treatments that they need. At this time, however, the current space for our Children's Hospital cannot offer families the kind of integrated care that eases the pain and difficulty of a child's illness. It exists in retrofitted adult facilities without adequate space for testing, materials, and visiting family members. The new Children's Hospital is envisioned as a freestanding, child-and-family-friendly facility that benefits from its place within the Medical Center campus but enables our children's services to flourish in a safe, welcoming environment. In the facility's 160,000 square feet, special attention will be given to creating a space in which families can support their children and each other throughout the medical care process.

Penn State Cancer Institute

Alone among top cancer centers, Penn State Cancer Institute is both a provider of care to a large rural population and an emerging leader in research. The Institute is a partnership of Mount Nittany Medical Center, Lehigh Valley Hospital and Health Network, Lewistown Hospital, and Penn State University Park with the College of Medicine and the Medical Center. It serves approximately 3,000 inpatients and 22,500 outpatients from Pennsylvania and beyond each year.

Our active participation in new treatment programs and clinical trials gives patients the hope of recovery and researchers the opportunity to learn more about cancer and cures. We are the only program in central Pennsylvania with full accreditation for autologous and allogenic bone marrow transplantation, and one of the first in the country to offer cryoablation treatment for tumors. The Institute currently participates in over 100 clinical trials, including more than 15 trials for breast cancer treatments. Our Grant Planning Group has mobilized programs in areas from viral carcinogenesis to childhood leukemia.

Ultimately, the value of these programs rests on how they affect the treatment and quality of life for our patients. In order to integrate top-quality research and care with our educational mission, we plan to add more than 155,000 square feet of clinical space, laboratories, radiation and chemotherapy facilities, and administrative offices in a freestanding facility. Researchers and caregivers will be more closely connected, and we will have the resources for strategic partnerships with scientists at Penn State's other campuses.

Through these initiatives, the Cancer Institute will move toward designation by the National Cancer Institute as a comprehensive center. The designation will give our researchers access to millions of new support dollars annually and enable us to recruit the very best researchers and attract patients from beyond our region. A new facility for our Penn State Cancer Institute will move us to the national forefront of medical research, while still providing the best in cancer care to a population in desperate need.

Naming Opportunities

The total cost of the Children's Hospital and Cancer Center is well in excess of $200 million. To complement funding through federal and state grants, borrowing, and Medical Center reserves, we seek to raise $65 million in philanthropy. Philanthropy can make the greatest difference in the speed and scope of the Medical Center's growth. We have had a history of strong support from our donors, but not since the Medical Center's founding have we needed benefactors of such extraordinary vision and capability to help us achieve the goal that we all share: better health care for our communities, our commonwealth, and our world.

For more information about these philanthropic opportunities, please contact:

Jennifer Schlener
Phone: 717-531-8497
Toll free: 717-531-7939
E-mail: jmschlener@psu.edu