Comprehensive Sickle Cell Center of Memphis Announces Fundraising Campaign

Passionate health care leaders, fundraisers and citizens came together today at City Hall, with a show of support from both the city and county mayors, to announce the launch of a $5 million fundraising campaign to create the Comprehensive Sickle Cell Center of Memphis.

The Comprehensive Program will be a collaborative effort by Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare, the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, and others who are expected to come on board soon. The Center’s out-patient clinic and dedicated in-patient unit will be housed at Methodist University Hospital’s campus.

Jim McGehee, chairman and owner of McGehee Realty and Development Co., who serves as chair of the campaign, kicked off the fundraising with a generous $250,000 gift. McGehee has recruited a diverse community leadership group to help raise the needed dollars.

Moved to become involved after seeing his wife’s former home health nurse suffer and eventually die from the disease, McGehee said, “You have never in your life seen anyone suffer the way a sickle cell patient suffers during a crisis. This experience helped me recognize the need for additional specialized and accessible resources to care for these patients.”

Resources at The Regional Medical Center at Memphis (The MED), St. Jude and Le Bonheur Children’s Medical Center, exist and will remain to take care of the pediatric sickle cell patient and outpatient adults, but no comprehensive adult inpatient center exists.

“Filling this gap is essential,” said Mark Yancy, coordinator of major gifts at the Methodist Healthcare Foundation. “The approximately 1,500 sickle cell patients in the Memphis Metro area often suffer bouts of excruciating pain in the chest, arms, legs or other parts of the body. In crisis mode, they need a place to go where their disease is understood and can be quickly addressed.”

Yancy speaks from experience. He missed a year-and-a-half of college classes because sickle cell had destroyed bone and tissue in his hips. At 21, he had his right hip replaced once and his left hip replaced twice.

Gary Shorb, CEO of Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare, said, “I know that, as a community, we can rise to this challenge and meet a very serious health need to improve the health status of the Mid-South. This center can and will affect outcomes as it will focus not just on treatment, but prevention and wellness, too.”

Mark Yancy challenged the audience and the community to join in the effort to help fill this void in Memphis. Methodist Healthcare Foundation will primarily be responsible for holding the program funds. To learn more or make a donation, call 516-0500.

About the Comprehensive Sickle Cell Center of Memphis

The comprehensive sickle cell center’s design is based upon delivering the most advanced clinical treatment, offering on-site research for treatment advances and ultimately a cure, and full psychosocial support for its patients. To deliver this all-inclusive care model, our center will include the following.

• 24-Hour Emergency and Infusion Unit: This unit will provide pain crisis management, transfusion and intravenous infusion support. This area can also be used for clinical studies requiring monitoring.
• Prevention Outpatient Clinic: The outpatient clinic will provide preventive health maintenance specific to sickle cell disease in a primary care setting. This consists of patient education, genetic counseling, social work services, and psychosocial support.

Our center will provide continuity of care at its best. The center will provide acute care r for those with sickle cell anemia, with the same staff providing both acute and routine health maintenance care to patients older than 16 years of age. This revolutionary care model has been proven effective in the Georgia Comprehensive Sickle Cell Center in Atlanta, which has been providing 24-hour emergent care and preventive care for over twenty years. This care model in our center will reduce admission rates to the hospital and emergency departments for sickle cell patients, translating to reduced pain and suffering for sickle cell patients in the Mid-South.

Visit methodisthealth.org/give to become a part of building the Comprehensive Sickle Cell Center of Memphis.