$10-Million Gift for New Pavilion at MedStar Georgetown
By • March 4, 2021 0 1803
Local philanthropists Allan and Shelley Holt have donated $10 million to support the construction of the new medical/surgical pavilion at MedStar Georgetown University Hospital on Reservoir Road NW — the largest single gift the hospital has ever received.
The donation will go toward state-of-the-art technology to assist surgeons with planning and performing complex procedures, resulting in improved quality of care and superior training for tomorrow’s surgeons.
Currently the biggest health care construction project in D.C. at nearly 500,000 square feet, the pavilion will provide 156 private patient rooms and feature a rooftop helipad. Itis due to open in 2023.
“Allan and I have been impressed by [the hospital’s] perpetual drive to advance the future of medicine, scholarly achievement and access to care for all,” said Shelley Holt. “We hope our gift for the new pavilion will encourage others to support it as they can.”
Allan and Shelley Holt.
The Holts, who reside in Georgetown, are devoted to many causes in the city, including the National Air and Space Museum and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Their gift will secure for the hospital one of the first intraoperative magnetic resonance imaging (iMRI) surgical suites in the region, allowing for real-time brain imaging while the patient is in the operating room. The iMRI technology enhances accuracy and shortens surgical time, according to Dr. Christopher Kalhorn, co-director of the movement disorders program and director of the epilepsy, pediatric and functional neurosurgery program at MedStar Georgetown.
An intraoperative magnetic resonance imaging (iMRI) suite. Courtesy MedStar Health.
Kenneth A. Samet, president and CEO of MedStar Health, called the Holts’ gift “truly an investment in the future of medicine, one that will benefit patients across the Washington, D.C., region and beyond.”
Licensed for 609 beds, MedStar Georgetown University Hospital is a nonprofit, acute-care teaching and research hospital founded on the Jesuit principle of “cura personalis” — “caring for the whole person.”
