The Miami Valley Hospital Foundation Enhancing the Patient Experience

The modern MVH Foundation began in 1983 under the stewardship of President and CEO Robert L. Hart, who served until 1986. The Foundation raises private funds and awareness for programs and services that fall outside of the hospital’s budget but directly contribute to a better quality of life for patients — programs that emphasize prevention, provide greater comfort, enhance inpatient care or expand hospital programs serving the greater community.

One example is the Palliative Care Program, where an interdisciplinary team provides compassionate care for patients with advanced illness and to those who are transitioning through the dying and bereavement process. Established in 1998, the team combines emotional, spiritual and psychological interventions with symptom management and educational support to address the individual needs of each patient and their family. In 2011, the team provided care in more than 1,600 consults with patients, families and staff. The program could not exist without the Foundation’s support.

“The outstanding physicians, nurses and staff at MVH provide the highest quality clinical care for patients at the bedside,” says Jenny M. Lewis, President and CEO of the MVH Foundation. “While we at the Foundation do not serve in that role, our team has the joy of knowing that someone will have a better hospital experience because the Foundation exists.”

Charitable contributions

Ms. Lewis says the Foundation raises more than $3 million annually. Since 1990, the most significant private charitable contributions have come from the family of Harold W. and Mary Louise Shaw. Between 1988 and 2010, the Shaw family contributed funds to create the hospital’s first Magnetic Resonance Imaging Center, allowed for the purchase of a linear accelerator, a PET Scanner, renovations in patient rooms and, most significantly, the Emergency Departments that bear the family’s name at the downtown campus and at MVH South.

Other significant contributions since 1990 have come from the late John Berry, Sr., for the Berry Women’s Center and other projects; the late Mrs. Jean Bull to create the Bull Family Diabetes Center; and most recently, from Robert Brethen for the Brethen Center for Surgical Advancement in Robotics and Minimally Invasive Surgery.

“We are very grateful to our donors for helping us make patient programs and services available that would not otherwise exist without their compassionate, heartfelt and generous support,” says Lewis, who succeeded former President and CEO Jeanne N. Eickman, who served from 1987 to 2005.

Learn more about the Foundation and its contributions to MVH.