If you’ve spent any time on the University of Iowa’s medical campus lately, you can’t help but notice the progress on construction of the new University of Iowa Children’s Hospital, located just across Hawkins Drive from Kinnick Stadium.

Now UI faculty and staff will have a special opportunity to make an impact and be remembered into perpetuity for doing so.

A public donor wall will be located in the main lobby of the new UI Children’s Hospital, recognizing any donors with total gift commitments of $10,000 or more—with UI faculty and staff also being offered the unique opportunity to be recognized on a special donor wall reserved just for UI employees. The threshold for recognition on this wall is $1,000.

“We are excited to provide this special opportunity for University of Iowa faculty and staff to be recognized in the new University of Iowa Children’s Hospital,” says Scott Turner, the hospital’s executive director. “This is their children’s hospital, evident by their dedication and ongoing commitment to provide compassionate care and service to families from across Iowa and the surrounding region.”

To be listed on the faculty/staff donor wall, UI employees must donate $1,000 or more to the Children’s Hospital Building Fund—which can be payable over up to a 5-year period, and may be given via payroll deduction. Groups of employees can even pool their gifts together and be recognized as a team on the donor wall, if their collective giving amounts to $1,000 or more.

State's only comprehensive children's hospital

UI Children’s Hospital has been meeting the health care needs of Iowa children and families since 1919. As the state’s only comprehensive children’s hospital, the hospital provides care for children from birth to young adulthood, with services ranging from preventive health care to treatment for general childhood illness, surgery, traumatic injuries, life-threatening and chronic illnesses, and developmental disabilities.

Until now, it has functioned as a “hospital within a hospital” and lacks a distinct facility of its own—patients and their families visit locations throughout UI Hospitals and Clinics to access the care they need.

The new 14-story, 189-bed hospital, scheduled for completion in late summer 2016, will integrate inpatient, outpatient, and surgical care, offering children the broadest range of treatments in one facility. 

The new facility will match the exceptional level of care already provided to families. In fact, UI Children’s Hospital is the only hospital in Iowa nationally ranked for pediatric health care. The UI is raising $50 million in private donations for the 507,000 square-foot hospital, and to date, more than $35 million has been raised.

What will gifts help make possible?

The new hospital, designed based on the input of faculty, staff, and the children they serve, will be among the most technologically advanced in the world, elevating family-centered care to a new level. The nurturing and efficient design will create a healing environment through the use of positive distraction and connection to the Iowa landscape, while also incorporating the highest standards of patient safety, energy efficiency, and environmental sustainability. 

Lively and engaging public spaces will bring some of the feel of “home” to the hospital. Patient rooms—each of them private—will feature large windows, space for parents and siblings, and home-like comforts. Families will have access to amenities such as a healing garden, children’s theater and library, art exhibits, classrooms, dining areas and café, and plenty of space for play, not to mention community spaces with large windows overlooking Kinnick Stadium that afford families a bird's-eye view of the Hawkeye football action on game days.

Visit this website for more information about the new UI Children’s Hospital and the fundraising campaign to support its construction.