University of Kansas Hospital receives a $10 million gift from Annette Bloch

The University of Kansas Hospital announced Wednesday that it has received $10 million from Kansas City philanthropist Annette Bloch toward construction of a $279 million expansion project.

The donation, in the form of a challenge match, will be used to support construction and technology for cancer laboratories and operating rooms in the hospital’s planned Cambridge North Tower, to be built northwest of 39th Avenue and State Line Road.

The tower also will house the hospital’s neurology, neurosurgery, and ear, nose and throat programs.

The challenge match requires the hospital to raise an additional $10 million by June 2016. The hospital already has raised $1.37 million toward the match.

The Cambridge North Tower is part of a plan to expand and modernize the hospital over many years. The tower will have 12 operating rooms and beds for 92 patients.

The hospital expects to finance $100 million of the project through philanthropic gifts. The rest will be covered by bonds and the hospital’s operating revenues. Including the Bloch challenge, the hospital has raised more than $34 million so far.

Hospital president Bob Page said he hopes the building will open in 2017. Page said it will be the first of as many as four such towers envisioned from 36th to 39th avenues that will be built as the number of patients seeking care at the hospital grows.

Bloch, a cancer survivor, is president of the R.A. Bloch Cancer Foundation. She and her late husband, Richard, have donated tens of millions of dollars to advancing cancer care in Kansas City.

In 2008, she gave KU Hospital $20 million to expand its cancer services. Last year, her foundation gave Truman Medical Centers $2.3 million toward the construction of an expanded cancer treatment center on its Hospital Hill campus.

This story was originally published November 19, 2014 at 5:31 PM with the headline "University of Kansas Hospital receives a $10 million gift from Annette Bloch."