Tampa children's hospital receives $50 million donation

A prominent Tampa family with a long history in the health care industry has donated $50 million to St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital Foundation.

The Pagidipati family, which founded and later sold the HMO Freedom Health, gave the money in honor of patriarch Devaiah, and matriarch Rudrama celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary and the 50th anniversary of their moving to the United States from India.

The donation is believed to be one of the biggest in Tampa’s history and one of the biggest to a health care facility in the state.

“Isn’t it amazing?” Stephanie Conners, BayCare Health System’s president and CEO, says after a ceremony Wednesday morning announcing the donation. “Amazing. Unprecedented. There are so many words.”

The money is earmarked for a new children’s hospital that will be built on the Tampa campus of the BayCare Health System-owned hospital and is expected to open by 2030. When it is complete, it will be named the Pagidipati Children’s Hospital at St. Joseph’s.

The new hospital, which BayCare announced in October, is part of plan the health care system has “to enhance local pediatric expertise and to create a destination hospital for high-acuity pediatric services, research and medical innovation” in the region.

A part of that plan is growing its multi-specialty, non-hospital pediatric clinics for better access for patients and expanding its pediatric graduate medical education programs.

Conners says the goal is for the hospital to one day “be known nationally as one of the best places to receive child-first, family-centered care at the absolute highest-quality.”

Sidd Pagidipati, whose two children were born at St. Joseph’s, says the seed of the idea for donating to the children’s hospital was planted during a tour of the existing facility last year, speaking with doctors and administrators and, later, learning of its plans.

The timing couldn’t have worked out better.

With their parent’s dual anniversaries approaching, Sidd, brother Rahul and sister Srujani wanted to mark the events with a big gift, something that showed their gratitude. A beach house was among the options.

But the parents didn’t want, or need, more.

What they wanted, Sidd says, was to do something that had a lasting impact and continued their lifelong work.

Devaiah Pagidipati is a Harvard-trained pediatric anesthesiologist, and Rudrama Pagidipati is a pathologist. Both have practiced medicine their whole adult lives and have run businesses focused on improving health care.

With that in mind, Sidd returned for a second tour this time with his parents in tow.

“After we got home,” Sidd says, his father said: “Look, this is where I want us to invest our dollars. And this is where we can create a multi-generational impact, … and we have the ability to provide that investment.”

“And that,” Sidd says, “was what caused our interest in giving this donation.”