More than 80% of funding through historic Tomorrow Starts Today capital campaign

PORTLAND, Ore., May 14, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, Providence announced investments totaling $177 million to address Portland's most urgent health care challenges by re-imagining emergency and critical cardiac care at Providence Portland and Providence St. Vincent Medical Centers, including Providence Heart Institute.

Together, these improvements will provide room for an additional 50,000 emergency department visits each year – the equivalent of an entirely new emergency department for Portland – and support Providence Heart Institute as it cares for a growing number of patients with much more complex cardiac conditions than patients in the past.

This commitment is the result of Tomorrow Starts Today, a capital campaign to enable faster, better care for more people. More than 80% of the total funding – $144 million – for today's announcement will come from generous donors, making it the largest campaign in Providence Oregon's history.

"Philanthropy has enabled Providence to care for Oregonians and patients in the Pacific Northwest for almost 170 years," said Laurie Kelley, Providence chief philanthropy officer. "Today's health care challenges require urgent fixes that quite simply will not be possible without the generous support of our current and future donors."

With health care facilities nationwide struggling with overcrowding and dated infrastructure, Portland's providers face similarly pressing circumstances. Annually, patients make more than 200,000 emergency room visits to Providence's Portland area hospitals, including an increasing number of individuals with mental health needs.

Tomorrow Starts Today will create more capacity and innovation across Portland through investments of $92 million in expanded and re-imagined emergency departments at Providence St. Vincent and Providence Portland and $85 million to expand critical cardiac care facilities, including a new cardiac intensive care unit, at Providence St. Vincent.

"Our emergency departments in Portland are staring down challenges that grow more significant by the day," said Ray Moreno, M.D., Providence St. Vincent chief medical officer. "Far too often we are caring for people in hallways and turning away ambulances due to overcrowding. Our patients, our caregivers, and our communities deserve better."

Similar pressures are mounting for Providence Heart Institute, whose facilities were not built to handle patients who may spend weeks or even months in the cardiac intensive care unit (CICU). "Providence has proudly grown into one of the largest providers of complex cardiac care on the West Coast and a national center of excellence, but the patients we're seeing today have much more complex cardiac care needs," said Dan Oseran, M.D., Providence Heart Institute executive medical director. "This is our opportunity to re-imagine cardiac care for the next 50 years and ensure that Portland remains a world-class destination for heart care."

Tomorrow Starts Today will deliver transformative changes for Providence patients, including:

• Reduced or eliminated wait times in the emergency department.
• Critical innovations and new facilities so Providence Heart Institute can provide the very best in complex cardiac care to more people as a national center of excellence.
• Improved safety, security, and comfort for patients and caregivers.
• More lives saved and better outcomes in areas of urgent need, including behavioral health, pediatrics, and stroke care.
• New flexible sites of care to accommodate more patients in moments of crisis such as a pandemic or natural disaster, and dedicated treatment rooms for people experiencing substance use crises and related behavioral health issues.

The large and complex expansion and renovation projects began in 2023 and are expected to be completed by 2027. Today's announcement is the first time the entirety of Providence's capital improvement plans has been shared with the public. Projects are being strategically staggered in phases to maintain care capacity during construction.

Andy and Nancy Bryant are co-chairing the effort to raise funds for the Providence St. Vincent emergency department, inspired by Andy and other family members' care in that facility.

"The critical care we received from Providence is the best we have received anywhere in the country," said the Bryants. "Now we want to give the same gift to others. We strongly believe that there is no more impactful investment you can make for Portland's future than donating to Tomorrow Starts Today. We invite others to join us and help Providence reimagine care for our city to ensure excellent care is available and accessible to all those who need it."

The Bryants are joined in their early support of this transformative campaign by other lead donors including Tim and Mary Boyle, the Lematta Family, Pat Reser and Bill Westphal, Mark and Mary Stevens, JTMF Foundation, The Chiles Foundation, The Zidell Family Foundation and others who have helped raise more than $125 million toward the campaign goal of $144 million in philanthropic funding.

"The fact that our community is rallying around this campaign is truly inspiring to all of us who work on the front lines providing care. We are so grateful," said Jeremy Lynn, M.D., Providence regional director of emergency services and Providence Portland emergency department physician. "We got into this work so we could help people on their worst day. We are excited to do that in updated and expanded spaces that will allow us to provide better, faster care for more people."

To learn more about the capital improvements and join the campaign, visit providencefoundations.org/tomorrow.

About Providence Foundations of Oregon
Providence is a national, not-for-profit Catholic health system compromising a diverse family of organizations and driven by a belief that health is a human right. The financial support of Providence donors is critical to continuing groundbreaking research, bringing the latest technology and equipment to our facilities, and improving the health of our communities through programs that simply would not exist without philanthropy. Learn more at

SOURCE Providence Foundations of Oregon