William J. Martin of Rockland is the president of the Lisa Dean Moseley Foundation, which funds promising health research and clinical trials.
Every Delawarean knows someone whose life has been impacted by Nemours Children’s Health. We entrust it with our precious children for everything from ear infections and well visits to rare congenital diseases and cancer. One of my own family members recently underwent complicated surgery at Nemours Children’s, and we could not have asked for a better experience or outcome.
Families in the First State are incredibly fortunate to have in Nemours a local but world-class pediatric health system, with a 90-year track record of caring deeply for our children. Nemours is not the only option to receive excellent pediatric care in the Northeast, but there is a reason that half of all children in Delaware visited Nemours at least once last year. It delivers the best pediatric care, with a spirit of warmth and family support running through the organization’s DNA.
Delaware’s children don’t need to travel outside the state for the best health care. It is already here.
Over the last several years, I have seen this up close in my role as president of the Lisa Dean Moseley Foundation. In 2022, that belief facilitated a $78 million gift to create the Lisa Dean Moseley Foundation Institute for Cancer and Blood Disorders at Nemours Children’s Hospital in Wilmington. It was our foundation’s biggest gift ever and easily the best decision I have been a part of in my five decades as a health care lawyer in our community.
I hope the children in your life never need treatment for cancer or blood disorders, but if they do, it’s hard to imagine a facility more state-of-the-art than the Moseley Foundation Institute’s brand-new inpatient floor. In addition to excellent clinicians, the space has been carefully designed to be a home away from home, with a full kitchen, spaces to gather and inspiring natural views of the 200-acre Nemours Estate. When the outpatient day hospital and infusion center opens later this year, it will more than quadruple in size, while continuing to give kids and families the best experience possible.
Nemours has offices from Wilmington all the way down to Selbyville, as well as the state’s only Level 1 pediatric trauma center and Level 4 neonatal intensive care unit. It has also launched a maternal-fetal health program to diagnose conditions before birth and ensure that babies with complex issues receive immediate care from their first day of life.
Nemours is committed to the whole child, recognizing that health is not just created in doctor’s offices but in homes, schools and communities. It provided a low-interest community impact loan to the Kingswood Community Center, to support the revitalization of Wilmington’s Riverside neighborhood. Nemours also has a team in Delaware that will phone parents and even knock on doors to help solve barriers that range from Medicaid paperwork to lack of food to the need for a warm coat. Meanwhile, Nemours works with our legislators at the state and national levels to advocate for the health of all Delaware children.
Nemours has health clinics in 17 public schools statewide and a program that automatically notifies pediatricians when children are frequently absent. These clinics offer mental health services, too, as do many of Nemours’ primary care practices.
Further, Nemours and the state signed the nation’s first pediatric global budget agreement, a commitment that ties Nemours’ financial success to its ability to make measurable improvements in the overall health of Delaware children.
The more I have gotten to know the clinical staff and leaders at Nemours and seen the organization’s inner workings up close, the more impressed I have been. That’s not something you can often say of a $2 billion organization with 10,000 employees. This work at Nemours is supported in perpetuity by the Alfred I. duPont Charitable Trust. That is no small advantage at a time when cuts to Medicaid are ushering in a period of uncertainty and anxiety for patients’ families. Nemours is well run and well supported. We know it will be changing lives and brightening futures in Delaware and beyond, now and forever.
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