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Chronic illness places an incredible burden on those individuals closest to the patient. The Lodge will provide housing for families and loved ones of the Mark O. Hatfield Clinical Research Center (CRC) adult patients. It will also provide transitional housing for patients and their family caregivers after hospital discharge, while they are learning the skills needed to sustain care at home. If space is available, patients who are being treated at the CRC and travel to NIH from long distances but do not require hospitalization may use the facility as well. The Lodge will be within walking distance of the CRC. The 26,000 square-foot structure will include 34 guest room units with a maximum daily capacity of more than 100 guests. Other proposed general amenities are a reception area, administrative support, business office, exercise room, library/conference room, living and dining rooms, and a family kitchen and playroom. Based on the concept of family-centered care, the Lodge will offer a comfortable, convenient place for rest and relief during the high stress of illness. Architects hope to bring that spirit of respite to the facility’s interior and exterior design. Project cost estimates are $7.5 for design and construction plus an additional $1.5 million for endowment of programs and amenities. Funding for the Lodge has been sought through the Foundation for NIH. The Foundation was created by Congress to provide monetary support in areas not traditionally funded by the government. Groundbreaking for the Edmond J. Safra Family Lodge is anticipated for summer 2002 with project completion expected in late 2003.
A $3 million donation to NIH from The Edmond J. Safra Philanthropic Foundation will help fund the Family Lodge. Other generous contributors also include the Merck Company Foundation, the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation, GlaxoSmithKline, and many more corporations, foundations and individuals. The Foundation for NIH hosted a ceremony marking the naming of the facility on April 17, 2002 at the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C. Considered by many to have been the twentieth century’s greatest private banker, Safra quietly carried out many philanthropic activities. Rarely taking personal credit, he supported thousands of students, underwrote medical research, built and restored schools and synagogues as well as churches and mosques, endowed professorships and contributed to countless humanitarian, religious, educational and cultural causes. After Safra’s tragic death, the Foundation and his wife Lily, who was a founding member of the Foundation and serves on its Council, supported many projects consistent with his vision. With the dedication of the Edmond J. Safra Family Lodge at NIH, The Edmond J. Safra Philanthropic Foundation carries forth Safra’s lifetime commitment to medical research and humanitarian causes. |
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Clinical Center Governance and Accreditation The Mark O. Hatfield Clinical Research Center The Edmond J. Safra Family Lodge Clinical Research Training Programs Organizational Effectiveness and Efficiency Initiatives
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The Edmond J. Safra Family Lodge at NIH will become a reality. Approval for such a facility was obtained last year and the Lodge has been added to NIH’s Master Plan. The need to provide a comfortable, home-like setting for families of adult patients at the Clinical Center has been validated through the years as NIH strived to provide accommodations for patients’ caregivers with a Children’s Inn and a pilot Guest House program.