CT Children’s joins national hospital alliance, gains $50M donation

Hartford Business Journal – Tuesday, October 28, 2025
By David Krechevsky

Connecticut Children’s Medical Center in Hartford has joined a national alliance of children’s hospitals, which will include altering its name while receiving a $50 million donation.

The announcement was made Tuesday during an event at the Golisano Institute for Business & Entrepreneurship in Rochester, New York. CT Children’s is one of six hospitals joining the alliance, which already has four member hospitals.

Combined, the six hospitals joining the Golisano Children’s Alliance will receive a combined $253 million from the Golisano Foundation and will incorporate Golisano into their names.

A CT Children’s spokesperson said the hospital’s new name will be Golisano Medical Center at Connecticut Children’s.

The $50 million donation is the largest in the health system’s history, hospital officials said, adding it will expand pediatric access, advance family-centered care and strengthen the hospital’s ability “to bring specialists, technology, research and Child Life services” for every child across the region.

“It represents a defining moment for our organization, for our patients and for Connecticut,” said James Schmerling, CT Children’s president and CEO who is retiring at the end of the year.

The foundation was founded by Tom Golisano, an entrepreneur, philanthropist and civic leader who is the founder of Paychex Inc., the nation’s largest human resource company for small to medium-sized businesses.

Golisano said the goal of the alliance is “to build a nationally recognized network of children’s hospitals that exemplifies excellence, dignity and innovation in pediatric healthcare.”

Each hospital joining the alliance went through an interview process before being selected, he said.

“The idea of the alliance is very, very important to the hospitals than I ever thought,” Golisano said, “because they could share best practices, they can share purchasing, they can share knowledge about all kinds of technical advances.”

He said the organization also expects to have officials from all the hospitals meet once or twice a year, “where they can really exchange ideas and practices, and they’re quite enthusiastic about that.”

He added that each hospital will remain independent while benefiting from the alliance.

In addition to CT Children’s Medical Center, the other hospitals joining the alliance and the donations they will receive include:

University of Vermont Children’s Hospital in Burlington: $25 million.

West Virginia University Medicine Children’s Hospital in Morgantown: $28 million.

PennState Health Children’s Hospital in Hershey: $50 million.

University of Kentucky Children’s Hospital in Washington, Kentucky: $50 million, and

University of Maryland Children’s Hospital in Baltimore; $50 million.

The four existing members of the Golisano Children’s Alliance are located in Rochester, Syracuse and Buffalo, New York, and Fort Myers, Florida.

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