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We have a big vision at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Children’s: to create the healthiest generations of children across America. We know it is ambitious. We got into children’s health in Wilmington, Delaware, due to the philanthropy and generosity of Alfred I. duPont, and his aspiration to make a transformative difference in children’s lives.

That level of change, particularly in the broken landscape of American health care, requires bold and decisive action.

Earlier this week, we announced a historic $300 million expansion of our hospital in Central Florida. It is our largest capital project in the region since we built ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Children’s Health, Florida 12 years ago. At the same time, we announced $130 million in updates to ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Children’s Health, Delaware for 2025 — a record one-year investment for our Delaware campus.

On one level, it’s very much about meeting the needs of our patients. We are the largest provider of pediatric health care in Delaware, and our patients depend on us to provide access to pioneer care. Not only does this investment create a world-class fetal surgery program in the state, it also succeeds in ensuring that the vast majority of new patients can get prompt access to our specialists within two weeks of making an appointment.

Orlando is one of the fastest growing cities and regions of the country. The number of patients at our Orlando hospital this year reached record levels, and the pediatric population in the region is expected to grow 5% over the next five years. We need more space to provide world-class medical care for our patients there. We are also fortunate that our strong financial position allows us to reinvest our revenues into our services and facilities, continuing the duPont legacy of community investment.

But this isn’t just about ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ patients, and it isn’t just about Delaware or Central Florida. We feel a responsibility to all the children in our service areas, regardless of where they get medical care.

If we want to create the healthiest generations, we must acknowledge that health is so much more than medical care alone. It’s the ability to get a quality education, to eat enough nutritious food, to have safe and stable housing and to be free of violence at home. In addition to great medical care, we need an ecosystem that promotes health for our kids. The health care sector cannot achieve these goals alone without the support of our governmental partners and community stakeholders.

That’s why as we are working to expand top-quality medical care to children in need, our Ginsburg Institute for Health Equity is convening more than 40 community organizations from across Central Florida to work together on quality education, economic stability, mental health and healthy food and nutrition. To promote health in all aspects of kids’ lives, we need to be aligned with partners in the community whose work impacts those nonmedical aspects of health.

Providing excellent medical care and championing healthy communities is how ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ is working to achieve whole child health. It is a model that we are developing in all our markets, with the vision that other children’s hospitals nationwide can play similar roles in their communities.

We are committed to the children in the Delaware Valley, North Florida and Central Florida who need good foundational primary care as well as the kind of specialty services offered at our hospital. But we also want to help the kids who may not be seeing doctors at all, but who need support to reach their healthy potential. When ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ expands its world class pediatric medical services, we do so with our compass pointed toward health and everything that entails. That’s what makes us not only a leader in pediatric medicine, but a leader in health.