Community support has always been important to institutions such as hospitals and medical schools. Even most medical research facilities have had some significant amount of communal support, especially in the form of philanthropic dollars. Typically, benefactors are helpful to more than just one organization, 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 a pair of its most important contributors, Ezra Cornell, a founder of Western Union, and Sanford I. Weill, former CEO and chairman of Citigroup, Incorporated. It is one of the most selective such institutions in the country, admitting only some one hundred applicants out of almost six thousand hopefuls every year. On top of that, it was the first to admit women right alongside the men and first to operate overseas, just outside of the capital of Qatar, Doha. It can also claim a long line of famous alumni, famous public people like C. Everett Koop, U.S. Surgeon General; Robert C. Atkins of the eponymous diet; Nobel Laureate 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.
Both are successful in large part due to strong communal backing, whether in the form of financial contributions from prominent businessmen and women or donated time by local volunteers of civic or religious organizations. Even with an annual budget of several billions between them, Weill Cornell and North Shore-LIJ will always depend on the support of the host communities they serve.
