Suburban Gets $2.5 Million Donation To Help Fund Expansion Project

Sondra and Howard Bender, via Suburban HospitalSuburban Hospital will dedicate a state-of-the-art emergency facility to Bethesda philanthropists Sondra & Howard Bender after the family’s foundation made a $2.5 million donation.

The donation is the largest Suburban has received this year, according to an announcement on Monday. It also put Suburban Hospital over it’s $6 million annual fundraising goal.

Some of the money will establish the Sondra D. Bender Fund for Nursing Excellence. Sondra Bender died last year.

“We are so honored to be the beneficiary of the Bender family’s incredible generosity,” Suburban Hospital President Gene Green said in a statement. “Their ongoing commitment of funding over the years has made a lasting impact on the care of our patients. And with this latest gift, they will help us look to the future and embrace the very best that medicine has to offer.”

Suburban says it has received donations from more than 2,000 individuals and organizations this year that have helped fund its patient navigator program and improvements to its oncology, cardiology, orthopedics, behavioral health, nursing and interventional radiology departments.

The hospital estimates the expansion project will cost $230 million. The existing building would be combined with a 235,000-square-foot addition by removing hospital-owned houses on Lincoln Street, the two-story administrative building and garage and replacing those facilities with a four-story building and new 1,125-space garage.

Suburban Hospital will be able to apply for a certificate of need for the project from the state by Oct. 4.

Photo via Suburban Hospital

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