Cayuga Medical Center at Ithaca

May 23, 2008, Ithaca, NY – Cayuga Medical Center Foundation announced today that it received a $15,000 gift at the Cayuga Medical Centers’ Auxiliary Dinner Wednesday evening.

Auxiliary president, Marie Powers, presented Dr. Rob Mackenzie, president and CEO at Cayuga Medical Center, with the donation for the new Emergency Department and Intensive Cardiac Care Unit. With this gift a treatment room in the new Emergency Department at Cayuga Medical Center will be named in the Auxiliary’s honor. This gift is in addition to a $100,000 contribution made earlier that led to the naming of the family waiting room in honor of the Auxiliary.

The newly constructed emergency department offers twenty treatment rooms. These private treatment rooms have solid walls (not curtains) that afford patients more privacy. They are also larger and easily accommodate a family member or friend. Other enhancements of the new emergency department include separating the ambulance and walk-in entrances, having the capability of bedside registration in each room, a large trauma room, and a comfortable family waiting room with a children’s play area that is named for the auxiliary because of their generous donation of $100,000 that was pledged and paid in increments over the past few years.

This gift to Cayuga Medical Center's Foundation for the ED/ICCU campaign will raise the total to over $1.7 million of the $2 million philanthropic campaign.

"Our volunteer members contribute in many ways to the medical center. They are essential to the day-to-day operations here," says Dr. Mackenzie. "We are very grateful for the time and talent they give to improve our medical center, and to make our community a better place to live. Their generous financial support for this campaign is deeply appreciated by our employees, our physicians, and our patients. We are very grateful to the Cayuga Medical Center Auxiliary."

In 2007, more than 225 active volunteer members of the Cayuga Medical Center Auxiliary donated in excess of 19 thousand hours of their time, providing many services throughout the medical center for patients and staff. Volunteers include people of all ages who help out on a regular basis - working in a variety of settings according to their personal preferences and individual skills.

If anyone is interested in becoming a Cayuga Medical Center Volunteer, please call the Volunteer Coordinator’s office at (607) 274-4323 or visit our Web site at www.cayugamed.org.

Donations to the capital campaign can be made to the Cayuga Medical Center Foundation. There are still a few naming opportunities in the emergency department and the ICCU. If you would like more information about giving options please contact Janice Hertel, Executive Director of the Cayuga Medical Center Foundation at (607) 274-4284 or e-mail her at jhertel@cayugamed.org

Cayuga Medical Center is a 204-bed, state-of-the art regional medical center and is affiliated with many prestigious health care organizations including Cornell University's Weill Medical College in New York City, the Rochester Heart Institute, Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, NY, and Mayo Medical Laboratories. For more information on services available at the medical center and its satellite campuses, please visit cayugamed.org or call (607) 274-4498.