Providence has received a $1.1 billion gift from Nike co-founder Phil Knight and his wife, Penny Knight, one of the largest gifts to a healthcare institution in U.S. history, to establish Oregon’s first hospital dedicated to women’s health and accelerate investments in cardiovascular care., according to a Sept. 15 news release shared with Becker’s.
The gift will go to Portland, Ore.-based Providence St. Vincent Medical Center and Providence Heart Institute, with funding also supporting new technologies and services aimed at helping patients navigate complex care.
“There are a couple of components to this really unprecedented gift, and we’re obviously incredibly grateful,” Daniel Oseran, MD, executive medical director of Providence Heart Institute, told Becker’s. “A significant portion of the gift is further investment in the Heart Institute.”
The Knights have given $200 million to Providence Heart Institute over the past decade, supporting heart transplantation, research, innovation and recruitment, according to Providence. The latest investment will support physician recruitment and retention, expanded clinical trials, advances in cardiac imaging and infrastructure improvements.
Dr. Oseran said Providence plans to take a thoughtful approach to deploying an investment of this magnitude.
“With a gift of this size, we are going to be very careful and strategic about how we plan and go forward with the use of these funds,” he said.
A major new component of the Knights’ philanthropy is the women’s hospital, which will be located on the Providence St. Vincent campus. The hospital will bring together services that are currently provided in different locations, including gynecology, pregnancy, labor and delivery, menopause and cardiovascular care. It will also include a modernized neonatal intensive care unit, according to Providence.
Dr. Oseran said Providence leaders have been considering the concept for some time.
“It would provide care for women spanning from pregnancy to birth, postpartum, midlife and menopause, and women’s specialties like women’s heart disease, co-locating those services in a single physical structure,” he said.
Although birth rates have declined, Dr. Oseran said that the complexity of patients receiving maternity care is increasing, making modernized facilities and adequate neonatal intensive care capacity increasingly important.
Cardiovascular care will also be integrated into the women’s hospital. Women are frequently underdiagnosed for cardiac conditions, Dr. Oseran said, creating a need to increase awareness and access to specialized care.
“We have some leaders in women’s cardiovascular care already, and bringing them into this facility is only going to accelerate our ability to serve,” he said.
Providence Heart Institute sees nearly 63,000 patients annually, up 23,000 from a decade ago, according to the health system. As cardiovascular technology continues to evolve, Dr. Oseran said the gift will give the institute greater flexibility to invest in emerging technologies.
“I think about the accelerating technology that is happening, and how things look today versus how they are going to look in five years,” he said. “There are probably things that I cannot even imagine. I think with this funding, and by carefully stewarding these funds, we will be in a position to invest in those technologies as they develop.”
The women’s hospital is expected to support hundreds of new clinical and nonclinical positions once complete, according to Providence.
