Ohio State University’s hospital is getting a $1.1 billion makeover, and the new emergency department might just be wearing the Abercrombie and Fitch label when it’s finished.
The Ohio State Board of Trustees is set to vote Friday on the name Abercrombie & Fitch Emergency Department, as a thanks for the company’s philanthropy.
“This naming is in recognition of the company’s long history of philanthropic support of patient care at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, which now totals over $10 million,” said Steven Gabbe, the hospital’s CEO, in a statement.
Bob Mackle, director of media relations for The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, told Red Alert Politics that he is not aware of any other names that are in consideration for the department. The clothing company also previously helped to create the hospital’s Abercrombie & Fitch Chair in Inflammatory Bowel Disease faculty position.
“As a nonprofit health system, we value and recognize the benefits of philanthropic support to our endeavors to improve healthcare in our community,” Gabbe said in his statement. “It’s through such generous gifts that we’re able to provide the very best in patient care, research and education.”
Although the New Albany, Ohio-based clothing company, which includes the Hollister brand, has come under a lot of recent scrutiny for its refusal to donate leftover clothes, lack of wheelchair accessible entrances and boycott against extra-large sizes, Mackle said the hospital has not gotten any negative feedback about the possible association.
This isn’t the first Ohio-based hospital to name a wing after Mike Jeffries’ company. Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, also christened its emergency department after Abercrombie & Fitch last year. But unlike the Wexner Medical Center, the children’s hospital was criticized by a Boston-based children’s advocacy group that thought the company promotes the sexualization of children in advertisements too much.
According to the Columbus Dispatch, the currently-nameless emergency department is part of the Wexner Medical Center’s $1.1 billion expansion which includes a new cancer hospital and research institute. The emergency department will open in 2014.
