Marco Island's new NCH urgent care gets $9 million naming gifts

Two Marco Island couples donated a total of $9 million for construction of a new NCH Healthcare System urgent care center on the island scheduled to break ground in late spring.Pat and Scot Kaufman and Steve and Barbara Slaggie made donations that will get their names on the building and the campus. The Pat and Scot Kaufman Healthcare Center will be the building name. The campus will be named after the Slaggies."There really isn’t a good medical facility on Marco," said Pat Kaufman, who has been on the NCH Marco Island board for more than 10 years.

There will be, now, she said. The Kaufmans donated $4 million for the new urgent care center.

NCH is planning to build a 25,000-square-foot building that will replace the existing 30-year-old building. Since the new building will be in another location on the property, the current urgent care center will remain open during construction.

The new urgent care and office building will be located on a corner of South Heathwood Drive and San Marco Road on the south side of another existing NCH healthcare center that will remain. Construction can begin as soon as permits are approved on the approximately $18 million building and campus remodel. Construction is expected to begin this summer and take 12 to 18 months.

"With this new building, every metric that is measured in healthcare will be improved," Pat Kaufman said. That’s so encouraging that we’ll have more in every area." She said she hopes the new building will bring more doctors to Marco Island.

"I think the need for a new facility on Marco is very very necessary," Barbara Slaggie said in an interview. "The island is growing, and younger people have been moving onto the island."

Long history of philanthropy

Pat Kaufman gives most of the credit for the planned building to NCH President and Chief Executive Officer Paul Hiltz.

"When the president of NCH came on board, that’s really the best thing that happened to Naples," she said. Hiltz was named CEO in 2019.

"I had been fighting for better healthcare for Marco Island. We need more doctors. We need better equipment," Kaufman said. "When Paul came on board, I had this real feeling that it was going to finally happen. And indeed, it is. It is finally happening."

The Kaufmans and the Slaggies have a long history of philanthropy in their home states and in Southwest Florida.

Pat and Scot Kaufman are originally from Maryland and have been married 52 years. at the University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake in Bel Air, a cancer center is named for them.

"Pat had taken quite a few friends downtown an hour away to get treatments for cancer," Scot Kaufman said. There was a need for a cancer center in Bel Air, he said. "The motto is "Hope and Healing Close to Home."

"That really easily segued to Marco Island," Pat Kaufman said of the couple's philanthropy.

"We’ve been around, and we’ve met the people, and the people of Marco Island are special people. There’s a spirit on this island, maybe it’s the Calusa Indian spirit, she said. "We have met the most wonderful people on Marco Island, and we care about the people."

The Slaggies' donation came as a surprise In January 2023 during the NCH Healthcare System re-opening of the Marco Rehabilitation Center on the same property as the urgent care center. The Slaggies, who will be married 54 years in May, were credited with making the reopening possible. As the Slaggies were being thanked they announced their intention to inspire others to support the new Marco Urgent Care Center building with a $5 million dollar match grant.

The Mayo Clinic Stephen and Barbara Slaggie Family Cancer Education Center in the Slaggies' home state of Minnesota is now a resource for patients to learn about cancer and share their experiences.

Able to give

Being able to give as they do isn't something either the Kaufmans or the Slaggies expected in their lives.

"To grow into where you have a great respect and empathy in wanting to share what you have with others whether medical or education really strikes a chord to us," Steve Slaggie said in an interview "Being in a position to do that is very rewarding. It gives life great meaning for us."

Slaggie, who is a founder of Fastenal, a publicly traded wholesale distributer of industrial and construction supplies, said Barbara Slaggie is from a family of 13 and of modest means. The largest fastener supplier in the country reported $7.35 billion in sales in 2023. Slaggie retired from the board of directors in 2014.

Pat Kaufman said her husband was at the right place at the right time with the right skillset, and the two of them worked as a team.

Scot Kaufman was chief financial officer of MBNA and in 2001 was one of the top 10 highest paid CFOs in the country, according to CFO magazine. MBNA was acquired by Bank of America in 2006.

"Neither one of us grew up with a silver spoon in our mouths," Pat Kaufman said.

"I couldn’t have done it without the support of my wife because I was away a lot," Scot Kaufman said.

The couples both say they hope their donations encourage others to donate.

"Our gift I think also was in hopes that other people would give no matter what their means," Barbara Slaggie said, adding that donations of as little as $50 are welcomed and can give residents a sense of ownership in the new facility.

"Of those to whom much has been given, much will be expected," is from St. Luke's gospel, which the Kaufmans say they follow and believe in. "I really hope people will pick up on that. That we are so blessed to live there, and they also will want to be philanthropic to this endeavor."

More:NCH urgent care on Marco Island moving closer to construction with site plans approved

More:NCH urgent care on Marco Island moving closer to construction with site plans approved