The Terry Family Foundation is handing Wolfson Children’s Hospital a major boost, committing $5.5 million to upgrade pediatric cardiac care and help build the hospital’s new Children’s Emergency Center, hospital officials announced Friday. Baptist Health is sweetening the pot with a 150% match that brings the total impact to roughly $10 million, with leaders saying the money will pay for new technology and equipment at Wolfson and help outfit the emergency center inside the McGehee Family Tower.
According to a press release from Wolfson Children’s Hospital, the $5.5 million grant will support upgrades to the C. Herman & Mary Virginia Terry Heart Institute and the development of the new Children’s Emergency Center. The hospital says a portion of the gift is matched at 150% by Baptist Health, producing about a $10 million combined impact, and that the dollars will go toward advanced cardiac equipment and trauma-ready emergency resources.
McGehee Family Tower And Timeline
Baptist Health has described the McGehee Family Tower as a 123,000-square-foot, four-story emergency and patient tower that will create separate adult and pediatric emergency centers and add imaging, laboratory and ancillary resources. Baptist Health says the project will open in phases, with full completion expected in 2029.
Emergency Center Specifics
Local reporting puts the project’s estimated price tag at about $190 million and lays out a floorplan with 100 emergency treatment rooms total: 63 for adults and 37 for children, including three pediatric trauma rooms on the ground floor. Jacksonville Today also describes plans for child-centered design, dedicated behavioral health beds and expanded trauma capacity inside the children’s ER.
Fundraising So Far
Local business reporting shows Baptist has already secured roughly $39 million in philanthropic support for the tower, and the Terry Family Foundation’s commitment adds fresh momentum to that campaign. Per the Jacksonville Business Journal, the system is actively courting donors to equip the new facility.
What Leaders Say
System leaders frame the expansion as a regional capacity play. “Our main campus provides care for more emergency patients than any other hospital in the greater Jacksonville area,” Baptist Health CEO Michael A. Mayo said in a statement to Baptist Health, adding that the tower will expand Wolfson’s Porter Family Children’s Trauma Center, the region’s only ACS-verified Level 1 pediatric trauma center.
Next Steps And Local Impact
Wolfson and the Terry Family Foundation recently unveiled a newly named Terry Family Foundation Plaza on the hospital’s flagship campus, and the hospital says the future lobby inside the Children’s Emergency Center will carry the family’s name when the first phase opens in late 2027. Hospital officials say the upgrades should shorten transfer times, reduce out-of-area transfers and give families more critical pediatric care close to home, and Wolfson provided the timeline and naming details in its announcement.
