Hospital foundation given a $10 million donation from Michael Lee - Chin. Campaign goal now at 60%

By Pepper Parr

September 15, 2014

BURLINGTON, ON.

The Joseph Brant Hospital Foundation has announced that Michael Lee-Chin and his family have made a $10 million dollar donation at its 14th annual Crystal Ball Gala.

The donation is the largest ever made in the City of Burlington and the largest made to the Joseph Brant Hospital. This gift brings the total raised for Joseph Brant Hospital Foundation’s Our New Era campaign to $37M – more than 60% of campaign goal.

Michael Lee-Chin – hospital’s biggest donour.

“There is no greater investment than in our health and the health of our community” said Lee-Chin. “We are embarking on a new era of health care in Burlington and I’m proud and honoured to be a part of it.”
Joseph Brant Hospital Foundation’s Our New Era campaign is on target to raise $60M by 2017 and will help enable the Hospital’s Redevelopment and Expansion Project which includes the construction of the new, state-of-the-art, seven-storey patient tower, scheduled to break ground in spring of 2015.

“We are so thankful to Michael Lee Chin and his family for their incredible generosity and for supporting our vision of a new era of health care in Burlington” says Brenda Hunter, Chair of the Joseph Brant Hospital Foundation Board. “This gift is a true testament to the family’s philanthropic spirit and to their commitment to ensuring our community has access to exceptional care, in a state-of-the-art facility”

Joseph Brant Hospital’s Redevelopment and Expansion Project includes the construction of the new patient tower which will house a 28,000 square foot Emergency Department, nine additional operating rooms, an expanded Cancer Clinic and Intensive Care Unit, a renovated special Care Nursery (level 2 NICU) and expanded medical, surgical, diagnostic and outpatient services.

The Hospital, which recently celebrated its 50 year anniversary, has not undergone a major renovation in 4 decades.

Shovels will go into the ground next year for a new seven storey tower that will be named after Michael Lee-Chin who donated $10 million to the hospital foundation.

The Joseph Brant Hospital Foundation is in the middle of a $60 million Capital Campaign, the largest in the Hospital’s and Burlington’s history, to support the local share component of the Redevelopment and Expansion Project.

The city of Burlington levied a tax on its citizens to raise an additional $60 million.

This campaign will be the most significant health care development in Burlington’s history and will ensure that our Community’s residents have access to quality care in the years ahead.

While it may not be all that polite at this point to mention, the hospital has had its problems in the past when more than 90 people died from complications related to c-difficile that resulted in a very significant insurance settlement.

There has yet to be a public apology from the hospital administration for the harm done to the community from that event.

Joseph Brant Hospital is a community hospital serving the City of Burlington and surrounding area since 1961. The hospital provides a range of services including medicine, surgery, emergency, maternal/child, mental health and rehabilitation/complex continuing care.

Joseph Brant currently operates 245 inpatient beds and accommodates over 170,000 patient visits, 13,512 admissions, 47,389 Emergency visits and 1,165 births each year. Its team includes 175 physicians, 1,400 full- and part-time professional health care staff and more than 600 active volunteers.

The hospital, its Foundation and Infrastructure Ontario are partnered on what will be the hospital’s first major redevelopment in 40 years. The design, build, finance project will include the construction of a new, seven-storey patient-care tower and significant renovations to existing space.

Past problems however should not take away from the incredible Lee-Chin donation; the new seven story tower will be named after Michael Lee Chin.