Jefferson gets $28M gift from Sidney and Caroline Kimmel for emergency department expansion at flagship hospital and research
Sidney Kimmel, a native Philadelphia who made money in fashion, previously donated $110 million to Thomas Jefferson University. Jefferson renamed its medical school the Sidney Kimmel Medical College.
Philanthropists Sidney and Caroline Kimmel are giving $28 million to Thomas Jefferson University for the renovation of the emergency department at its flagship hospital in Center City and to support medical research, Jefferson said Wednesday.
Jefferson did not specify how it will split the $28 million to achieve both goals.
It plans $19 million in upgrades to the emergency department at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. The facility will be called the Caroline Kimmel Emergency Department in honor of the Kimmels’ gift.
Jefferson first disclosed the ED project in a municipal bond market filing last year. The project involves redesigned treatment bays, an expanded entrance, and a renovated waiting room, Jefferson said in February. Construction is expected to start at the end of this month.
A portion of the Kimmel’s gift will support both clinical research and the translation of scientific research into treatments, Jefferson said.
“It will speed our development of new discoveries and technologies, help us find better ways to treat and cure disease, and continually expand our understanding of life,” Said Ibrahim, dean of Jefferson’s Sidney Kimmel Medical College, said in a statement.
Legacy of giving
Kimmel’s support for Jefferson started in 1996, when he donated $10 million and got his name on Jefferson’s cancer center. The National Cancer Institute’s recognized the Sidney Kimmel Cancer Center as a comprehensive cancer center, the highest designation from the federal research agency.
Kimmel donated $110 million to Jefferson in 2014, leading to the renaming of the former Jefferson Medical College in his honor.
In 2019, Jefferson announced a $70 million gift from the Kimmels to help pay for a $340 million biomedical research building in Center City. Planning for that project has been paused, Jefferson said in an email this week.
The building was going to be called the Caroline Kimmel Biomedical Research Building.
Sidney Kimmel is a native Philadelphian who made his money in fashion through Jones New York and other brands. Among his prominent gifts in Philadelphia was a series of donations totaling $63 million for the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts on South Broad Street.