With $15M donation, Phil and Jennie Gaglardi Foundation claims name of Royal Inland Hospital patient care tower

KAMLOOPS — When the first phase of the new Patient Care Tower officially opens in July, on it will be the names of two people who cared deeply about the Kamloops community.

It will be named the Phil & Jennie Gaglardi Tower after their foundation donated $15 million towards the building.

“We just could not imagine not following through on our committment that we gave in 2019,” said Andrea Gaglardi, a granddaughter who’s part of the Phil & Jennie Gaglardi Foundation. “This was something we had to do, and partly because that’s what our grandparents would’ve done and partly because it was the right thing to do.

Andrea says her grandparents loved the community and loved serving at Royal Inland Hospital.

“There were often patient visits. I even recall as a child, my grandmother and grandfather being called to the hospital to visit with someone that they either knew or someone had ask them to go talk, or just sit with someone they may or may not have known,” noted Andrea.

The $15 million donation is the largest in RIH history. It’s also the biggest ever within Interior Health. The donation is going towards the Together We Rise campaign for the new tower.

“The $15 million is going to allow us to purchase much-needed equipment and will allow us to dream big,” said RIH Foundation CEO Heidi Coleman. “There’s a lot of equipment the doctors and the nurses want, and it would take years and years to get it on the list, but because of this committment we can purchase this equipment today.”

Royal Inland Hospital’s Chief of Staff Todd Ring says, through his connections as team physician for the Kamloops Blazers (Tom Gaglardi is the majority owner), the conversation all started with a text message that led to a meeting and eventual the large donation.

He notes it will impact every department in the new tower.

“Whether we’re talking about our operating theatres, our neonatal intensive care unit, [and] even just small things within our mental health areas, making them more personal, making them where people have spaces to heal and get better,” said Ring.

Ring hopes the state-of-the-art building will attract more physicians and specialists to Kamloops. In fact, he says there are already specialists that have made committments.

“We recently just recruited a brand-new female neurosurgeon who I believe is one of the first female neurosurgeons in B.C.,” he said. “The selling features of you’re going to come and you’re going to have a brand-new operating room to work out of, you’re going to have a new Patient Care Tower where your post-operative patients are going to be able to go to.”

Phase 1 of the Phil & Jennie Gaglardi Tower will be done this summer. The second phase, which will include a new emergency room, won’t be done until 2024.