Hoag's 'Promise' to Orange County: 'Lead. Innovate. Transform.'

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., September 28, 2015 --- Hoag Hospital Foundation today announced the first comprehensive campaign in the organization’s 63-year history, an ambitious pledge to raise a total of $627 million by 2020, making it one of the largest campaigns to date in community-based health care.

Known as “Hoag Promise, Our Campaign to Lead, Innovate & Transform,” the $627 million, 10-year comprehensive campaign seeks to significantly expand Orange County residents’ access to quality health care options and underscore Hoag’s unique role in providing innovative and compassionate health care to Orange County residents.

Since the “quiet phase” of the “Hoag Promise” campaign began in 2010, Hoag Hospital Foundation has raised an estimated $320 million in gifts that are being used by Hoag to connect patients to new resources, including leading-edge procedures, health care education, and community-based facilities that give residents convenient access to Hoag’s renowned services. Now entering its “public phase”, the campaign funds will continue efforts to enhance Hoag’s physical facilities, create additional endowed chairs, increase access to clinical trials, create and implement new patient-care technologies, and expand its nationally renowned institutes and programs in areas such as cancer, neurosciences, heart and vascular, women’s health and diabetes. The “Hoag Promise” campaign will benefit every area of Hoag.

A Promise ‘to Lead, not Follow’

“Since Hoag first opened its doors in 1952, community support has been vital to our success in providing world-class care delivered in outstanding facilities by extraordinary professionals,” said Robert T. Braithwaite, Hoag’s president and chief executive officer. “Over the past 63 years, our promise to the community has never wavered. That is to lead, not follow as we deliver outstanding, personalized health care with a compassionate touch to all who entrust us with their well-being. The strength of our leadership arises from the same forces that have guided us from our very beginning – commitment, determination, and the collective power of community.”

Emboldened by History of Community Support

Calling Hoag’s first-ever comprehensive campaign “a bold step forward with an even bolder fundraising goal,” Braithwaite said Hoag is in a fortunate position to be able to embark upon a campaign of this magnitude. “We’re emboldened for a very simple reason: the Orange County community has always been there for us, and we know it will be as we undertake this campaign,” he said. “The inspiration for “Hoag Promise” comes from our 2006 Renaissance Hoag fundraising initiative. We raised $127 million, which laid the groundwork for the “Hoag Promise” campaign but, more than that, Renaissance Hoag expanded our vision of Hoag’s potential going forward.”

“The stakes are even higher now as the availability and funding of quality health care in America undergo seismic shifts. Just as health care providers need more resources for innovation in order to demonstrate value, we are receiving less funding for the care we provide. Philanthropy inspires and enables us to innovate and deliver on our mission. More than ever, Hoag and the community we serve must stand arm in arm to ensure that the level of outstanding health care we provide is always available to Orange County residents, whenever they need it.”

Community support will play a critical role in Hoag’s promise to bring quality health care to all areas of Orange County, Braithwaite said. The “Hoag Promise” comprehensive campaign will take the best of what Hoag does now and expand upon it, ensuring the organization’s continued clinical leadership, innovative spirit and transformative potential. “Hoag was founded by the community and for the community, but is absolutely a regional force in health care,” he said. “’Hoag Promise’ doubles down on our commitment to quality and innovation, and to remaining one of the best health care providers in the nation.”

Community Support and Philanthropy Critical to Hoag’s Ability to Innovate

“Community support and philanthropy are absolutely essential to our mission as the health care industry undergoes transformational changes in the way services are provided and funded,” said Flynn A. Andrizzi, Ph.D., president of Hoag Hospital Foundation and senior vice president of Hoag. “Through this campaign, we are determined to help Hoag achieve its ultimate potential. At the same time, we are steadfastly holding on to the culture of outstanding service, innovation and compassion that makes Hoag so special today.”

Underscoring the vital role that community participation plays in the comprehensive campaign, Hoag executives asked several prominent community members to lead the campaign with the formation of the Campaign Leadership Council (CLC). The CLC members, who serve voluntarily and advise Hoag leadership on all facets of the comprehensive campaign, are: Dick Allen, Terry Callahan, Pei-yuan Chia, Jim Coufos, David Horowitz, Roger Kirwan, Karen Linden, and Ginny Ueberroth. In addition, hundreds of volunteer leaders from the community are serving on campaign committees.

Furthermore, the Hoag Promise comprehensive campaign is engaging clinical leaders from throughout the entire organization challenging them to think strategically about what they and their teams require to transform care over the next decade and beyond. The campaign seeks to use strategic input and decision-making from Hoag leaders to fully leverage the impact of Hoag’s philanthropic networks and reach.

“Hoag Promise is comprehensive in the truest sense of the word,” Andrizzi explained. “Its vision and goals are wide and deep. It touches every institute, center and specialty area of Hoag. It includes programs, innovation opportunities, education, research, technology, facilities and clinical staff for each area.”

Andrizzi said the campaign’s goals comprise three overarching themes that connect fundraising priorities from throughout Hoag to meaningful community benefits.

1. The Promise of Big Ideas

In America’s complex health care environment, only visionaries and pioneers will thrive in the long term. Success is inextricably linked to a willingness and ability to innovate. In many areas, “Hoag Promise” invests in big leaps – founded on big ideas -- over incremental change.

At Hoag, big ideas take many forms. One of them is TAVR, which stands for Transcatheter Aortic Valve Replacement, a new and innovative approach to aortic valve replacement. The procedure was pioneered at the Jeffrey M. Carlton Heart & Vascular Institute at Hoag, and is performed in the Bob & Marjie Bennett Advanced Cardiovascular Surgery Suite – the first operating room of its kind in Orange County, enabling advanced diagnostic imaging and surgical procedures to be performed simultaneously in the same room. This big idea is transforming lives, including that of great-grandmother Barbara Keene, who underwent the TAVR procedure recently at Hoag – and as a result, is enjoying life with her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren to its fullest. “I think it’s fascinating how they were able to do this,” Keene said. “I am so grateful.”

2. The Promise of Empowering You

All too often, the health care system can feel fragmented, disjointed and exhausting for patients. “Hoag Promise” seeks to remedy this by uniting health care providers with the tools and information they need to best serve patients and their families. Examples include expanding community health centers, patient education, nurse navigators, real-time access to health information, and navigation-focused programs and technology, among others.

The Telemedicine Program in its Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) is a powerful example of how Hoag is empowering patients – and using technology to bring families together. Funded by a generous Legacy Foundation gift, the program – the first of its kind in Orange County – features a series of cameras that enables families to view their premature babies in real time, no matter where the family members happen to be. For Sheri Remis, whose twin boys Ethan and Logan were born at just 26 weeks, the program not only allowed her and her husband to keep a loving, watchful eye on their newborns, it also captured a very special moment. One morning at 3 a.m., Sheri watched as Ethan sucked his thumb for the first time – a milestone in the development of a healthy baby. She immediately alerted the nurses, who provided him with a pacifier to assist him in learning to suck. “When I can’t make it to the hospital, it gives me great peace of mind to log on and watch them sleep peacefully,” Sheri said during her boys’ stay at Hoag.

3. The Promise of Extraordinary Leaders

“We expect great things from our nurses and physicians. We expect them because, without fail, they deliver,” Andrizzi said. “Hoag attracts the best of the best, and ‘Hoag Promise’ priorities support them in delivering our unique brand of care. The goal is simple: Provide these talented and dedicated healers the resources they need to move care forward.” Examples include endowed chairs, physician education, leadership awards, and nursing scholarships and certifications.

Andre Vovan, M.D., is a great example of the benefits that result from Hoag’s commitment to its physicians, nurses and staff. While traveling overseas with his wife in 2014, Dr. Vovan received the unsettling news that his father had been admitted to Hoag, suffering from sepsis. Fortunately for his father, Dr. Vovan and his staff had spent years developing new treatment protocols for the often-fatal condition, with remarkable results: Hoag’s sepsis mortality rate dropped to 13 percent, compared to between 30 percent and 50 percent nationally. Dr. Vovan’s pioneering work paid off for his father: Although he had been on life support for five days and suffered kidney failure and a minor heart attack, he pulled through and left the hospital after 17 days. “It’s one of those circle-of-life situations where the program I helped develop here at Hoag ended up saving me and saving my dad,” said Dr. Vovan, chief of Service-Critical Care at Hoag. “It was a true blessing.”

ABOUT HOAG HOSPITAL FOUNDATION

Thanks in large part to philanthropy, Hoag has become one of the nation’s finest health care systems and serves a diverse and growing population. Hoag Hospital Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Hoag (a separate 501(c)(3) corporation), is an integral partner in Hoag’s vision to become a trusted and nationally recognized health care leader. Under the direction of a volunteer Board of Directors, the Foundation conducts campaigns and programs that generate more than $50 million per year in gifts and pledges. The Foundation is launching Hoag Promise, Our Campaign to Lead, Innovate &Transform with a goal of $627 million by 2020. Please visitwww.hoaghospitalfoundation.org.

ABOUT HOAG MEMORIAL HOSPITAL PRESBYTERIAN

Hoag is an approximately $1 billion nonprofit, regional health care delivery network in Orange County, California, that treats more than 25,000 inpatients and 369,000 outpatients annually. Hoag consists of two acute-care hospitals – Hoag Hospital Newport Beach, which opened in 1952, and Hoag Hospital Irvine, which opened in 2010 – in addition to six health centers and eight urgent care centers. Hoag is a designated Magnet^® hospital by the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC). Hoag offers a comprehensive blend of health care services that includes five institutes providing specialized services in the following areas: cancer, heart and vascular, neurosciences, women’s health, and orthopedics through Hoag’s affiliate, Hoag Orthopedic Institute. In 2013, Hoag entered into an alliance with St. Joseph Health to further expand health care services in the Orange County community, known as St. Joseph Hoag Health. Hoag has been named one of the Best Regional Hospitals in the U.S. News & World Report Metro Edition. National Research Corporation has endorsed Hoag as Orange County’s most preferred hospital for the past 19 consecutive years and, for an unprecedented 20 years, residents of Orange County have chosen Hoag as one of the county’s best hospitals in a local newspaper survey. Visit www.hoag.org for more information.