The Beebe Medical Foundation is increasing its Sussex Supports Beebe Healthcare campaign goal.
The campaign reached its original $22.5 million goal, establishing a new residency program for Family Medicine and Beebe’s Center for Breast Health while purchasing a Mobile Health Clinic. That money also helped upgrade a Catheterization Lab in Lewes and initiated renovations at Tunnell Cancer Center.
Now the foundation is increasing its goal to $30 million. The additional $7.5 million will support various projects - including a new primary clinic in Long Neck, a second mobile health unit, and a fifth operating room for robotic surgery at the Specialty Surgical Hospital. It will also upgrade another cath lab in Lewes, and continuing renovations at the Tunnell Cancer Center.
Beebe Medical Foundation Gift Officer David Szumski says the community’s needs drive Beebe’s growth.
“There’s no need for anyone to have to travel out of Sussex County to get very comprehensive care for any kind of breast health issues," Szumski says. "And you know, cardiovascular care, you want that to be the best that it can be locally if you have an issue.”
Szumski adds the mobile health unit is making its way to parts of western Sussex that otherwise wouldn’t receive any healthcare – noting a shortage of primary care providers.
Szumski says philanthropy is helping Beebe fill those gaps and donors continue to reach out with generous campaign gifts.
“We hear it all the time from especially our new neighbors, people who are moving from big metropolitan areas, and they have a care experience with Beebe and they feel like they’re being treated like family," Szumski says. "They have this personal attention, and there are times they share stories of places where they’ve been in the past where they really didn’t feel that way, they might have felt like a number.”
