Transcription:
The Riverside Foundation

Carl Maronich (Host): We are talking to Matt McBurnie. Matt is the vice president at Riverside of institutional Advancement. Matt welcome.

Matthew McBurnie (Guest): Thanks, it's good to be here.

Carl: One of the many hats you wear is that of the head of the foundation at Riverside health care and we're going to talk about that, what the foundation is, how it impacts patient care ultimately and those kinds of things; but first we want to talk about who Matt McBurnie is and how he got to come to be a vice president Riverside.

Matt: Sure, well I've been in the community since college and one of the things I would say in my adult life is that I've fallen in love with our community. I love the people, I love the balance of there's a lot to do, proximity to Chicago. And it's small enough that you can know your neighbor really well and know people throughout the community.

Carl: All nice things.

Matt: Yeah, my family I live here in town. I've been married for more than twenty years and we have four great children, one of them in college clear down to about eight years old, so raising our family here too.

Carl: And been in Riverside tenish years.

Matt: Yeah, just over ten I and when I originally came to Riverside it was specifically directed just to the foundation. In the last couple of years, I've taken on some additional responsibilities as well and yet Foundation is a really critical part of Riverside and so still maintains a priority focus for me.

Carl: Yeah so let's talk about that, what the foundation actually is and how it supports the hospital. Some folks might find it curious that hospitals that seem to, people think have all kinds of money, why would they need a foundation. So, talk a little bit about what the foundation is at Riverside.

Matt: Sure, well the foundation I describe shortly as the charitable arm of Riverside, it is the avenue, it's not a destination, but really is the avenue by which people in the community and organizations and businesses can give philanthropically to Riverside’s mission. You know Riverside is more than fifty years, about 54 years old and shortly after we opened our doors, there were volunteers that pulled together and really talked about opening up the doors for philanthropy and so that began in the late sixty's and thrives through the decades and really makes a significant impact in what we're able to do in patient care.

Carl: So, talk a bit about that, how what the foundation does, and I know at times it might have different focuses in terms of service lines and what it does but how do they hope to really impact again that patient care.

Matt: Yeah well you know it's one of the things in the business of the medical world or the hospital you know, people pay bills which help to offset the expense of delivering that care. You know that's the reality and there's a wide variety of care that goes on around Riverside. By introducing philanthropy, that allows us to advance things that we might not ever be able to do in the local community. It allows us to make sure that really, we can be on the cutting edge of things, that we can open up and expand services and access for people in an expanding geographic region and to make sure that we have some remarkable specialties here in this community. It allows us to bring technology here that otherwise we might have to wait ten years for. And in the meantime, that becomes a burden and a hardship on the people in our community who would have to travel out of the area, sometimes really significantly to get those services otherwise.

Carl: The reality is, oftentimes the what people pay for the care they receive, the bills they get, what they pay doesn't often cover the cost to provide that care; which may surprise some people but that's the reality of the world we live in now, so what I'm hearing here is that the foundation tries to fill in that gap if you will. Healthcare is an expensive entity to provide care. It could be very costly to as you were saying provide the equipment, the technology that advances so rapidly, to be able to provide that in local community is not an inexpensive proposition. The foundation and then in fact can help with that.

Matt: Right and there are a lot of ways that we reach out you know we, in fact I was just sharing with somebody earlier today that sometimes our donor is one who contributes five dollars and sometimes it could be in the tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars and so donors of all kinds give to support Riverside. And you know there are really four main areas that historically the foundation has been involved in. Programs are one of those areas, scholarships, facilities and equipment and so when you look over a number of decades that we've been around, those are the four areas we've been able to impact and really be able to advance what's going on at Riverside.

Carl: One of those jumps out of me and that's scholarships. Talk a little bit about the scholarships that the foundation provides and how that impacts the hospital.

Matt: Yeah, I'll go back actually to one focused effort we had around scholarships, that was a few years ago. Riverside is the area's only magnet designated hospital. What is what is made to be magnet means that it's kind of the gold standard of nursing care and so there were a number of investments we were making into our nursing staff. One would find in a hospital like ours, associate degree nurses, bachelor's prepared nurses, master's degree and even doctoral prepared nurses. We have all of those at Riverside as well. But we began a concerted effort to offer scholarships so that our nurses who are working at a certain level might be able to go back and get their next level or next two levels of education. So, we went out to the community and said would do support this effort as a way to give thanks and give back to these nurses that have cared for us. Really was a beautiful thing, because the people who gave were giving out a gratitude they'd received care of their loved one and received care. What it allowed for that nurse is to be able to go back to school and maybe make that investment in his or her education that they never felt like they could do. You know with time constraints and young families sometimes they just didn't feel like they could do it. It gave them that confidence that they could. You know one of the other benefits was many of them went back to our local university or community colleges to be able to secure that education and so it helps the economy in that regard, because those entities benefited as well and ultimately it delivers better patient care at the bedside. And so, our patients benefit from that. So that's a great example of how philanthropy works.

Carl: And that was a specific campaign that the foundation undertook.

Matt: That was a specific campaign. I will tell you that the great thing about is we set out a goal initially, and we've actually tripled the amount that's come in from that original goal and I credit the hearts and generosity of people who gave and truly those stories were varied. I learned about one donor who his wife was in the hospital, an announcement came over that we'd become magnet designated, came over the speakers and that patient said, what's all this about. We explained the process. They said you know what we've noticed how remarkable the patient care is. We want to give to that and I'll tell you every year that family has given specifically for nurses and it's continuing to provide that avenue for nurses all along the way.

Carl: Kind of an extension of that, I understand there's a grateful patient initiative or effort that the foundation undertakes also in which speaks to that exact thing. Patients that are grateful for the care and they have an opportunity to give back to the hospital if you will for that.

Matt: Right and there there's two ways that we invite them to give back and they can do a both and or either or and it's to certainly give a financial gift of any range, but then also you know would they would they write a note of encouragement and so sometimes it's generic. The doctors and nurses at Riverside were incredible. I had a great experience. Sometimes it's very specific, they say nurse so and so by name Dr. so and so really made the difference for me when I was at Riverside and we pass that information on and of course you know that feels good as the staff person to know they were recognized. Guess what they're going to be more energized to deliver that great care to the next patient who's then going to respond in kind with additional gratitude. Ultimately that's the kind of loop that we're trying to create, is raise up people being generous. We have a phrase that we use in the foundation, generosity heals and so Riverside's in the healing business there's no doubt, but when we take a step back and talk maybe beyond even you know the clinical part of what we sometimes talk about there is a healing that goes on when people can give and to affect the next patient. I find that many of our most passionate gifts are given not by the recipient, but by a loved one of the recipient, who watched the care occur. Sometimes their loved one is thriving and doing really well. Sometimes that loved one passed in our care, but they passed with such dignity and such comfort in the way they were treated that their gratitude just overflows and they say I want to help the next people who are coming through these doors.

Carl: Very powerful.

Matt: We're trying to expand the heart, if you will. Riverside's definitely in the heart business you know certainly when we think about our cardiovascular service line but we're in the heart business. We want to grow the hearts of the people in the community and give them remarkable avenues to be able to give and affect the next patients who come through our door.

Carl: One of the other four you mentioned is equipment to the hospital and as we know the kinds of equipment that we're buying typically is not Band-Aids and thermometers. It's expensive equipment as time has gone and the complexity of that equipment the prices have gone up as well, so the foundation can again serve a need there and there has been a very specific campaign around some technology. Talk a little bit about that.

Matt: Sure, right now we are in the lead with your heart campaign and so that has a number of elements to it but its lead element is about adding two brand new state of the art cardiac cath labs, cardiac catheterization labs to our medical center. Right now, there are catheterization processes is done every single day at Riverside and thankfully patients are trusting us, and our staff is doing a great job. We want to not only give them additional space in which to care for patients, but we want to make sure that we're investing again in the state of the art technology again, well beyond the standard, but truly the state of the art, which is not only great for patient care, but it's great to put in the hands of our skilled cardiologists too. We recognize they want to work on the best equipment and so we want to make sure that we can put those tools in their hands also.

Carl: Right and the foundation staff about five or six that work in the foundation, but really you have three thousand foundation ambassadors. Is that what you hope to accomplish can and do employees get involved in that way for the foundation?

Matt: Great question. One of the things we look at, you know certainly we go to the community and invite them to give, but one of the things the community members ask me is this in your employees see this mission accomplished every day, are they giving, and they are. We appeal to our employees at all different levels. To consider giving to Riverside's mission directly. It is an increasing number every single year of employees that give. Many of them do it through just like a payroll deduction a really simple but they're doing it with regularity. They're giving back to our mission because they believe in what we're doing.

Carl: 2018, kind of just getting underway. Are there – you mentioned the campaign that you're currently working on. Are there other things in the in the foundation's future that excite you, you seem like an excited guy pretty much all the time, enthusiastic but is there anything we can look forward to as time rolls forward that you're really excited about with regard to the foundation?

Matt: Sure. There are - there is a regular pattern for us of some events that are really important Riverside. Those certainly help us from a fundraising standpoint and so the foundation takes the lead on it. But really is about engaging people in our story. One of those is coming up soon. We only do it once every two years, but it's the Riverside heart ball and that event is really a black-tie gala. We plan to have over a thousand people in the room, raise some remarkable dollars for our Heart and Vascular Institute through the Lead with Your Heart Campaign and then just down the road not too far as our annual Pro-Am golf tournament. It's actually the longest running Pro Am professional amateur tournament in the state of Illinois and we will run that again this year in its forty first year I believe and you know we will engage the community and that it really is a great day and again it delivers some needed funds, this time again for the Heart and Vascular Institute.

Carl: And the folks who are listening have been so moved by your words, there's a way that they can get involved. They can go to our website I'm sure.

Matt: Yeah and in fact when you go to the website there is a tab that just says giving and then one can click on foundation or they can click on volunteer services, so we invite people to give. We really do. We want to expand the heart. Sometimes people are able to give right now financially. Any size gift I think does good all over the place. Sometimes they want to get from their time and so we invite people to be volunteers as well and there are a lot of ways to get involved in the organization as a giver of time and skill in that regard. We love to have people do so.

Carl: Matt McBurnie vice president of Riverside and I'm struggling with the title.

Matt: Yeah vice president of Institutional Advancement.

Carl: I should I should have that tattooed on my hand, so I will never forget that. Matt, we appreciate your time learning more about the foundation and the great work that the foundation does.

Matt: Thanks, so much Carl.