Baystate’s New ED Named for Local Philanthropic Leaders

SPRINGFIELD — Local philanthropic leaders Harold Grinspoon and Diane Troderman expanded their already-substantial charitable reach in Western Mass. by presenting a $1 million gift to Baystate Medical Center’s adult Emergency Department.

The facility’s new name will be the Harold Grinspoon & Diane Troderman Adult Emergency Department at the Baystate Medical Center Emergency & Trauma Center. It joins the Sadowsky Family Pediatric Emergency Department as the two named elements of the new Emergency & Trauma Center at Baystate, which opened Dec. 3, 2012.

“We are very pleased to support this institution, which plays such a critical role in serving our community,” said Grinspoon. “In making this gift, we are following the example of others who have given their support. We hope our gift will evoke further generosity within our community.”

The new Emergency & Trauma Center encompasses 72,000 square feet, more than three times the size of the hospital’s former emergency room, with twice the number of private, adult patient-care spaces, and scaled-up trauma care resources for the region’s only Level 1 and pediatric trauma center. The unit features 10 ambulance bays and a rooftop helipad for speedy access to lifesaving care for emergency medical crews and their patients.

Troderman said she and Grinspoon, her husband of 26 years, were inspired to give after seeing the Davis family donate to create the newly-opened Davis Family Heart & Vascular Center. “What matters to us is inspiring others to give back to their communities. We are pleased to be next in what we hope will be a long line of contributors. In Baystate, we see an anchor of our community’s health, and we’re very proud to share our name with this facility.”

The Grinspoon-Troderman gift will be essential to supporting emergency care in the community, according to John Davis of the Baystate Health board of trustees, whose family’s center is adjacent to the Emergency Department at Baystate’s Springfield campus. “I congratulate them on another investment in our shared future. They are a committed family.”

Baystate Health President and CEO Mark Tolosky said it has been a pleasure getting to know the couple during this process. “The names Grinspoon and Troderman have strong and enduring associations with literacy, with faith, with education, with entrepreneurship, he said. “From now on, because of this incredibly kind gift, these names will also have a permanent association with public health here in Western Mass.”

Grinspoon established the Harold Grinspoon Foundation in 1993 in Springfield. Troderman has been his active partner in all of his philanthropic activities. They are deeply committed to charitable giving, primarily in the Jewish world. In addition to their support to Baystate, Grinspoon and Troderman also work to encourage young people to reach their academic and leadership potential, promote literacy and early-childhood education, reward excellence in teaching and education, support entrepreneurship among young people, and promote education and health in Cambodia.

“This gift is an incredible support to our efforts to provide the highest-quality, highest-value care to every one of our many patients,” said Dr. Niels Rathlev, chair of Emergency Medicine at Baystate Medical Center. “We offer Mr. Grinspoon and Ms. Troderman our heartfelt thanks and appreciation.”

In turn, Grinspoon noted, “Baystate Health’s board of trustees should be commended for the visionary and ambitious undertaking they started more than a decade ago to bring Baystate into the 21st century.”