EH Outpatient Surgery Center Receives Donation

Jerry and Kathleen Grundhofer donate $7.5 million for Outpatient Surgery Center

RANCHO MIRAGE — Philanthropists Jerry and Kathleen Grundhofer have donated $7.5 million through their Foundation to Eisenhower Health for the renovation of its outpatient surgery center located inside the Dolores Hope Outpatient Care Center.

The Foundation’s gift will help advance surgical services for patients across the Coachella Valley.

While the outpatient surgery center in Dolores Hope was state of the art in 1986, 30 years later technology and innovations in surgery are paving the way for a dramatic shift in cases from inpatient to outpatient procedures. In order to thrive in the new outpatient landscape, Eisenhower must redesign and remodel the Dolores Hope Outpatient Care Center’s same day surgery suites.

“I think a big part of any surgery is the push to be minimally invasive, but that requires an appropriate operating environment,” Dr. Scott A. Gering, vice president of surgical services at Eisenhower Health, said in a prepared statement. “With the Grundhofer’s incredibly generous donation, we can now move these surgeries to the outpatient setting — making it an even greater center with all the right equipment. It’s a win-win for everyone.”

The benefits to patients include:

• Easy transfer to the hospital for additional care, if needed.
• Overflow from main hospital can be accommodated in new suites for less invasive cases
• Fewer delays in surgeries when performed in the outpatient environment
• Shifting outpatient procedures away from hospital operating rooms will increase surgical capacity in the hospital operating rooms
• Meeting patients’ preferences for the convenience of surgeries done in the outpatient setting

The Grundhofer’s  donation will help provide:

• Addition of two new large state-of-the-art operating rooms to accommodate robotic surgery technology
• A total renovation of the 10,450 square foot second floor surgery department
• A new da Vinci® Robotic Surgical System dedicated for outpatient surgery
• Redesign and expansion of  the four existing operating suites
• Expansion of central sterilization facilities
• Expansion and update of support space, creating six pre-op rooms and 12 recovery rooms
• Latest surgical technologies and infection control in the surgery suites

“Jerry and Kathleen Grundhofer’s unwavering support of Eisenhower is awe-inspiring,” G. Aubrey Serfling, president and chief executive officer, said in a prepared statement. “The Foundation’s remarkable gift will enable Eisenhower to pursue its goals of providing our community with unparalleled outpatient surgical services with technologies that continue to draw the best and brightest surgeons to Eisenhower. Their generosity will directly impact patient care for decades to come, and I, for one, cannot emphasize enough how much that means to all of us at Eisenhower.”