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Harley Bergmeyer, left, presents Dr. and Mrs. Leland Olson with the Perry Branch Award during the University of Nebraska Foundation’s trustees dinner. The Olsons are longtime supporters of UNMC. |
This gift, made to the University of Nebraska Foundation, will establish the Olson Women’s Outpatient Care Center as part of the Olson Center for Women’s Health. UNMC anticipates completion of the facility, to be located on the first floor of The Nebraska Medical Center’s Durham Outpatient Center, by the end of 2005.
Carl Smith, M.D., chairman of UNMC’s Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, said the Olsons’ gift allows UNMC to create a facility that is “world-class in terms of its ability to care for women.”
“Right now we do an excellent job of providing care to a multitude of patients in a multitude of settings,” he said. “This gift enables us to take a quantum leap forward in being the local, regional and possibly national center of excellence for women’s health.”
The Olson Women’s Outpatient Care Center will house physicians and other health care professionals in obstetrical and gynecological care, internal medicine, radiology, laboratory support and selected subspecialties. Sub-specialties may include cardiology, gastroenterology and endocrinology.
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Leland and Dorothy Olson of Omaha are this year’s recipients of the Perry W. Branch Award for Distinguished Service to the University of Nebraska. The award, given by the University of Nebraska Foundation, recognizes their longtime involvement with the university, including their volunteer and philanthropic support. While offering an obstetric and gynecology practice in Omaha, Dr. Olson also served on UNMC’s volunteer faculty for more than 30 years. After retiring in 1986, he pursued a vision set by Dr. McClure Smith, then chairman of the UNMC obstetrics and gynecology department, to create a health science center focused specifically on women’s health. Embracing this concept, the Olsons’ philanthropic support and involvement helped establish and guide the Olson Center for Women’s Health at UNMC. They continue to serve on the center’s board of advisors. The Olsons’ desire to support the university’s physicians and scholars led them to establish endowed faculty programs at the University of Nebraska Foundation, including multiple faculty chairs in obstetrics and gynecology at UNMC, a chair in nursing at UNMC and two chairs at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The couple also supports research efforts at The Lied Transplant Center by funding two research floors. |
Whether patients need to see a gynecologist or an internist, have a mammogram or undergo a cardiovascular disease screening, the Olson Women’s Outpatient Care Center will provide patients a “one-stop” approach to their health care. “With one call a woman will be able to schedule doctor’s appointments and screenings,” Dr. Smith said. “The hope is that we’ll coordinate these appointments so the majority, if not all, will take place within this area.”
As a retired health care professional, Dr. Olson sees this approach to delivering outpatient care as the future of medicine.
“You’re not going to be able to have multiple places for women to go for their health care,” Dr. Olson said. “These services have to be centralized and by combining them into one location we make a stronger presentation of what a woman needs.”
Dr. Olson practiced obstetric and gynecological medicine in Omaha until his retirement in 1986.
Dr. Smith believes that bringing women’s health care services together in one location will provide patients advantages beyond convenience. He hopes this collaborative environment also will lead to the development of up-to-date protocols for treating common diseases and health screenings.
“The desire is that collaboration between these clinicians will result in treatment and screening protocols such as what age a screening test should occur, what type of screening should be used or frequency of a test,” he said. “We’ll be setting the standard for quality of care so our patients can be assured of having the most current view of what she needs to do to maintain or improve her health.”
This gift also extends the Olsons’ relationship with the University of Nebraska that began 66 years ago when Dr. Olson first enrolled at NU. The Olsons and their three children all graduated from the University. Three generations of the Olson family, including two Olson children and a granddaughter, also are graduates of the NU College of Medicine.
In the late 1980s, the Olsons made a gift to the NU Foundation to help launch the UNMC Olson Center for Women’s Health. Based in the UNMC department of obstetrics and gynecology, the Olson Center is recognized nationally for its efforts in advancing women’s health through innovative approaches to education, research and service.