WILMINGTON – Nemours Children’s Health has announced the opening of a new state-of-the-art institute for patients with cancer and blood disorders thanks to a $78 million donation from the Lisa Dean Moseley Foundation.
Calling it “one of the most significant donations ever made to a U.S. children’s hospital,” in its recent press release, the health care organization first established the new Lisa Dean Moseley Foundation Institute for Cancer and Blood Disorders (Moseley Foundation Institute) in March of 2023 after that donation and broke ground later in May of 2024.
Just under a year later, the organization finally celebrated the opening of its new 24-bed, 24,000 square foot inpatient facility which was the first phase of the project.
The second phase will include a 19,000 square foot outpatient day hospital and infusion center which the group expects to open in October of this year.
This facility, budgeted to encompass more than $27 million of the Foundation’s donation, will be retrofitted from the third floor of the organization’s duPont Pavillion and will include 18 infusion and apheresis ambulatory rooms, along with 19 clinic rooms and a procedure room for cancer and blood disorder ambulatory pediatric patients, according to a past presentation to the Health Resources’ Board by Nemours accessed by the Delaware Business Times.
“This beautiful facility bears testament to Mrs. Moseley’s desire to improve children’s health, and specifically to advance health outcomes related to cancer and blood disorders. I believe that she would be particularly proud of the work Nemours Children’s is doing to address health disparities in the community where she was raised. We are honored that her legacy will fuel research and scholarship that will have an impact not just in Delaware, but across the country and around the world,” President of the Lisa Dean Moseley Foundation William Martin said in the press release.
Dr. Lawarence Moss, president and CEO of Nemours Children’s Health said the addition is needed and will work to amplify the services Nemours has provided to children in the region since the 1930s.
“This gift is special, not only in its size, $78 million, but in the magnitude of impact it can have. Nemours Children’s Health has been a leader in children’s cancer and blood disorder care for decades. However, this gift will allow us to take it to an entirely new level,” Moss said in an announcement about the gift found on the Nemours’ website.
For its patients and local medical providers, the donation that made this new facility possible doesn’t stop there – several other endowments were created thanks to this gift including a chair for sickle cell disease research and a laureate program to benefit more research. It also created a presidential endowed chair to support the institute director’s work, as well as a biennial international symposium.
“Discoveries and advances that we make at the Lisa Dean Moseley Institute for Cancer and Blood Disorders will spread rapidly across the country and will profoundly influence kids everywhere,” Moses said.
