INDIANAPOLIS — Ten years ago on Dec. 7, Indiana’s oldest hospital and health system began a new chapter in its now over 160-year history. Wishard Memorial Hospital was renamed Eskenazi Health, and a historic move to a brand-new, 1.3 million square-foot downtown campus and hospital signified a change for not only the organization but all of Indianapolis.
In 2009, 85% of Indiana residents voted to approve the construction of replacement facilities for Wishard Hospital. As construction began, Eskenazi Health Foundation received a record gift from local Indianapolis couple Sidney and Lois Eskenazi. This $40 million gift was recorded as the largest philanthropic gift ever given to a public hospital to date.
The patient-centered Sidney & Lois Eskenazi Hospital includes 333 inpatient beds with 21 operating rooms and four interventional labs, 14 labor and delivery rooms, a 100-bed treatment room emergency department, including a 16-bed clinical decision unit, more than 200 ambulatory clinic exam rooms, one of only three adult Level I trauma centers in the state, and the only verified adult burn center in Indiana.
The downtown campus provides unique and one-of- a-kind features such as The Sky Farm located on the roof of the Sandra Eskenazi Outpatient Care Center and the first health campus in the United States to achieve Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Gold certification.
Sidney & Lois Eskenazi Hospital officially opened its doors on Dec.7, 2013, and has now cared for more than 10 million patient visits since opening.