ECMC & Tim Hortons partner to support KeyBank Trauma & Emergency Department

Tim Hortons annual “Smile Cookie” campaign raises nearly $400,000 in three consecutive years to benefit ECMC’s new offering

For a third consecutive year, Erie County Medical Center Corp. and Tim Hortons restaurants partnered to support the institution’s state-of-the-art KeyBank Trauma and Emergency Department, raising this year $135,879.

Jalila Bouchareb, Tim Hortons U.S. general manager and head of operations, said, “This year, for our annual ‘Smile Cookie’ campaign, we once again had the pleasure of partnering with the Erie County Medical Center to raise donations for its trauma and emergency department. Their support of ‘Smile Cookie’ is especially meaningful this year and we are honored to be able to contribute to the lifesaving care they provide to families throughout Western New York. As always, we are grateful for the continuing support from our guests, local restaurant owners and businesses throughout Western New York who raise money through ‘Smile Cookie’ each year for local charities and organizations in their community.”

ECMC Corp. President and CEO Thomas J. Quatroche Jr., Ph.D., said, “We thank Tim Hortons and the thousands of Western New Yorkers who have again this year supported the ‘Smile Cookie’ campaign. We celebrate the generosity of our community demonstrated even during the COVID-19 pandemic. Every day our skilled and dedicated caregivers deliver lifesaving care to thousands of Western New Yorkers who depend on ECMC during many of their most challenging moments. The Tim Hortons ‘Smile Cookie’ campaign has helped to raise financial support and public awareness for our state-of-the-art KeyBank Trauma and Emergency Department that now serves our region and will do so for generations to come. We are grateful to our partners at Tim Hortons for their commitment, and we are extremely thankful to area residents for their continuing support and confidence in ECMC.”

ECMC broke ground for its KeyBank Trauma and Emergency Department on June 1, 2018, and opened the new facility on June 2, 2020.

ECMC’s $55 million KeyBank Trauma and Emergency Department doubled the size of the previous 40-year old facility and features state-of-the-art technology and equipment. Originally opened in 1978 to accommodate 45,000 patients annually, the previous facility processed approximately 70,000 patients in 2019. Patient volumes are expected to reach over 75,000 annually by 2024.

The previous emergency department main entrance was accessed only by a ramp, which did not meet current accessibility codes and created safety risks for patients and staff. It was located in functionally obsolete space in need of modernization to align with current and future standards of care for emergency medicine and to support improved quality of care and operational efficiency. A 2014 operational assessment indicated that, on average, 12 hours each day, the existing emergency department was operating over capacity.

The new facility, designed by CannonDesign and built by The Pike Company, nearly doubles facility square-footage to 54,000 and increases treatment space from 36 to 54 stations, including four dedicated trauma rooms, two behavioral health safe rooms, two isolation rooms and four medical resuscitation rooms. It features intradepartmental imaging consisting of two CT rooms and two X-ray rooms, direct access from the hospital’s rooftop helipad, and a care initiation zone to support an enhanced triage model of care.

A press release said, “ECMC’s new KeyBank Trauma and Emergency Department addresses an important community need by expanding the health care delivery system’s capacity to serve patients that require emergency medical attention, serving as a referral source for other area hospitals to transfer patients that require specialized emergency care, advancing ECMC’s engagement and investment in the City of Buffalo’s Delevan-Grider Corridor, and building on ECMC’s growing and dynamic relationship with the State University of New York at Buffalo’s Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and the Kaleida Health System.

In 2019, the joint “Smile Cookie” effort raised $167,498 and in 2018 it raised close to $95,000 for a three-year total of $398,377. As in previous years, 100% of the proceeds from Tim Hortons’ annual September campaign throughout Western New York is going to ECMC’s trauma and emergency department capital campaign.

There are approximately 200 Tim Hortons restaurants in Western New York.