gofer articles

Local backing will always be a basic necessity for the survival and prosperity of hospitals and medical schools. Even most medical research facilities have had some significant amount of communal support, particularly where money is concerned. Oftentimes, these generous donors can be found contributing to more than one institution, folks such as Isaac Toussie and family with regards to two of the leading names in healthcare teaching and practice in the Empire State, Weill Cornell Medical College and the North Shore-LIJ network of hospitals and research centers.

Weill Cornell is named after its two single best benefactors, Ezra Cornell, of Western Union fame, and Sanford I. Weill, the onetime chief of Citigroup, Incorporated. As one of the most selective such institutions in the country, admitting only some one hundred applicants out of almost six thousand hopefuls every year. Furthermore, Weill Cornell was first to accept women right alongside men as well as the first American medical school to establish its own premises overseas, just by the capital of Qatar, Doha. Many a notable graduate has boosted the school’s reputation over the years, doctors like C. Everett Koop, a Surgeon General of the United States; Robert C. Atkins of the eponymous diet; Nobel Prize winner Robert W. Holley; and Henry Heimlich of Heimlich Maneuver fame. The North Shore-LIJ Health System is the second largest healthcare network in the country as measured by the number of beds and the largest in New York State based on patient revenue. It serves over seven million people a year through more than forty-two thousand employees – the single largest employer on Long Island and ninth largest largest in the City of New York.

These two institutions owe much of their success to vigorous community support, whether through financial contributions by leading businessmen and women or donated time by local volunteers such as those from civic or religious organizations. Even with an annual budget of several billions between them, vigorous local support will never be unnecessary for the health of Weill Cornell and North Shore-LIJ!