Bank of America donates $250K to expansion of Mercy Southwest
Bank of America did its part lending a helping hand to the local health community Friday.
The bank awarded a $250,000 grant toward the Dignity Health and Mercy Southwest Hospital tower expansion project — a four-story, 106 patient-room addition that’s going to be built in the summer and has a threeyear construction timeline. It’s the largest local grant ever awarded in Kern County by Bank of America, according to a Dignity Health news release.
During a Friday presentation, Mercy Hospitals of Bakersfield President and CEO Bruce Peters expressed his gratitude for the donation.
“We are overwhelmed by
Bank of America’s generosity and supporting our new tower project at the southwest hospital,” he said. “It really goes to show their commitment to our community, their involvement with our community and to support the health and welfare of our community.”
BOA Senior Vice President and Bakersfield Market Manager Karen Zuber said the company is excited to help serve the region.
“We know that the health care services are in a critical need, our community is growing by leaps and bounds and our health care services need to be able to keep up with the general population growth,” Zuber said.
Beverly Camp, who is helping lead the capital campaign for the tower expansion, said one byproduct of the expansion would be bringing more doctors to Bakersfield.
“This is a big attraction to our medical community and we are really excited about that,” Camp said.
In addition to the 106 private patient rooms, the tower will include:
A 24-room intensive care unit.
Eighteen private neonatal intensive care unit rooms.
State-of-the-art cardiac catheterization suites.
Expanded neurosurgery capabilities.
Six additional operating rooms.
Specialized oncology and orthopedic units.
Expanded emergency department.
Additional parking and campus redesign.