YOUR PAST IMPACT

A New Surgical Operating Table Has Arrived at WDMH – Thanks to You!

Thank you for ensuring that surgeries at WDMH will continue without interruption!

Because of your generosity, a new surgical operating table has arrived—and we are so grateful for your support in helping us meet this important need.

WDMH performs approximately 4,000 surgeries each year. With three operating rooms but only two functioning surgical tables, our ability to provide timely and efficient care was limited.

The new surgical table allows us to fully equip our third operating room. This means:
• Emergency surgeries, like C-sections, can happen even when other ORs are in use
• Fewer delays and cancellations for non-emergency procedures
• Improved patient safety and care

This advanced surgical table is:
• Fully adjustable for different procedures and staff comfort
• Equipped for imaging during surgery when needed
• Compatible with a full line of accessories to optimize patient safety and comfort
It will be used across all surgical specialties, helping us serve more patients more efficiently.

On behalf of the Perioperative Department, thank you for making this possible. Your support helps us provide the best care possible—every day.

The final cost of the new portable ultrasound machine was $51,417 and was purchased from the WDMH Foundation's General Equipment Fund. Thank you to our donors!

Your ongoing support and commitment to patient safety make a real difference. Thank you for being part of the WDMH family.

Thank you for helping us keep our littlest patients safe

A New Portable Ultrasound has recently arrived in WDMH's Family Birthing Unit - because of you! Thank you for helping us meet this need!

“With this machine, we can get real-time data to improve and impact patient care during labour, for example, confirming fetal position, among many other uses, without having to wait or be dependent on a formal radiology ultrasound,” explains Dr. Gaurav Jain.

When a family comes to WDMH’s Family Birthing Unit (FBU), they are surrounded by obstetricians, family physicians, midwives and nurses who want to provide the very best care at an exciting time in their life. To do so, the WDMH team needs the very best equipment. Portable ultrasound machines are used right at the bedside for assessments during labour, diagnoses and treatment, often on an urgent basis. Ultrasounds help support early detection and treatment for:

• Fetal positions
• Maternal bleeding or concerns with Mom
• Concerns with the baby

Having a machine right in the FBU ensures it is readily available, especially during an acute situation when time is of the essence for the mom and baby. The new machine also supports further education and competency training for bedside practice.

Thank you for your ongoing support and commitment to patient safety!

The final cost of the new portable ultrasound machine was $62,648.50 and was purchased from the WDMH Foundation's General Equipment Fund. Thank you to our donors!

 

Giant Washing Machines for OR Equipment!

Installing a 2,600-pound sterilizer is no easy feat. But the WDMH maintenance team was up for the task – twice! That’s because they understand the importance of specialized equipment that supports safe patient care. Our community does too!
WDMH now has two new sterilizers – thanks to the generosity of several donors who gave gifts to the WDMH Foundation’s General Equipment Fund. These donors include the Kin Club of Russell and the proceeds from their Catch the Ace 5.0 Lottery.

“Thank you to the Kin Club volunteers and everyone who purchased tickets for CTA5,” notes WDMH Foundation Managing Director Kristen Casselman.

These specialized sterilizers, also called autoclaves, are used to properly sterilize medical equipment and instruments. For example, they are used to clean the instruments used to perform laparoscopic and open surgeries.

“With three operating rooms, our sterilizers are used a lot,” sums up Kristen. “These pieces of equipment are essential to the smooth operation of WDMH and to patient safety. Thank you to our community for your generous support.”

The total cost of the sterilizers is $208,760.41.

Better Training - Because of You!

WDMH is committed to learning: in fact, it is one of our core values and has been for years. The better trained our health care team is, the better care we can provide. When staff feels supported, trained, and confident, they are more likely to stay at WDMH. Our teaching programs have helped us immensely with recruitment and retention over the years.

Because of our generous donors, WDMH now has 3 new training manikins. We are not talking about the mannequins you see on display in store windows. These manikins are so much more! The technology built into each one is incredible. These remarkable manikins are being used to train staff, physicians, and students by providing realistic simulations of real medical scenarios. These scenarios can be repeated over and over to help with the learning process giving staff time to practice the skill, think through their care plan, and most importantly, ask a lot of questions.

With this training equipment, we can now replace outdated equipment, train our staff onsite and train more of them, and offer a wider variety of courses at WDMH. Thank you so much!

An Epic response from our amazing donors

Because of our generous donors including an anonymous matching gift donor, the WDMH Foundation has been able to purchase several pieces of equipment to support Epic, Winchester District Memorial Hospital’s (WDMH) new patient information system. The total price tag: just over $181,000!

In November, WDMH launched Epic, giving patients better access to their own health information and more seamless care from their providers. The system securely stores and organizes patient records while maintaining patient privacy.
A great example of the innovations we now have with Epic is Single Sign On. “Before Epic, nurses and doctors literally signed into dozens of hospital care systems and computers, with a different username and password for each one. Each sign-in took a tiny bit of time that added up over a day, week, and a year,” explains Cholly Boland, WDMH CEO. “Single Sign On allows healthcare providers to securely sign into all systems they need with one username and password. It saves time and protects everyone’s privacy. Thank you to our community for your support.”

Donors also helped to purchase other equipment to support patient care through Epic including several workstations on wheels and handheld devices for bedside care, as well as document scanners. “Epic was a multi-million-dollar project, but it’s really priceless in how it will improve care,” adds Kristen Casselman, Managing Director, WDMH Foundation. “Bringing Epic to WDMH was a tremendous team effort that included our donors. We needed them, and they were there. We are so grateful to each of them, including our generous matching gift donor who matched $25,000 in donations!”

Instant Information - Instantly Recorded

Because of our generous donors, every patient room at WDMH will have a new vital piece of equipment – a Welch Allyn Vital Signs Monitor. Thank you so much for your support!

The vital sign monitors will result in safer care and more time for patient care. When a nurse takes a patient’s blood pressure or other vitals such as heart rate or temperature, the information will flow directly into the patient’s electronic health record from the machine. There is no need to write things down to enter into the system later. This process saves time and improves accuracy.
In November, WDMH will be launching the Epic health information system. The vital sign monitors are a key part of the new technology. With Epic, patients will get better access to their own health information and more seamless care from their providers. The system will securely store, organize and access patient records while maintaining patient privacy.\\

“A huge thank you to everyone who supported this important initiative. Because of our community’s incredible generosity, we were able to fund this project very quickly,” notes WDMH Foundation Managing Director Kristen Casselman. “The timing worked out very well since WDMH is launching the Epic project in November.”

The total cost of 70 monitors: $482,632.75!

The new machines have arrived!

Ultrasound Technologists Jenna Crombie (left) and Sheila Jordan (right) are celebrating the arrival of two new ultrasound machines at WDMH. The two new ultrasound machines arrived at WDMH on May 30th and are up and running.

Every day, the DI team performs important diagnostic tests, saving local community members a trip to the city, and helping patients get the answers they are looking for. In the past 10 years, almost 70,000 ultrasounds have been done at WDMH, with over 8,100 procedures in the last year alone.

The quality of images from the new machine is spectacular. Technology has advanced to a point where things that were too small to be identified before can now be identified using these units.

The total cost of the new machines was $232,307.74.

Thank you for helping to keep hearts beating

The new echocardiogram machine has arrived!

Thank you to everyone who gave in support of the general equipment fund for much-needed medical equipment purchases like this important machine.

An echocardiogram is a technology that uses sound waves to make images of your heart. It allows technicians and cardiologists to see the heart’s structures, and how the heart beats and pumps blood. The images that are captured during the procedure are then evaluated by a cardiologist who reads them to assess your heart’s function.

At WDMH, we are proud to offer cardiac services for our patients, saving many people a trip to the city for the same services.
Our technicians perform echocardiograms on patients of most ages – from 17 years of age and up. Each year, more than 1,000 echocardiograms are performed at WDMH.

Thank you!

Automated Dispensing Cabinets (ADCs) are used to securely store medications on each nursing unit and in the Operating Rooms. The ADC provides inventory controls, including trackable access, stock level management, and medication selection based on Physician orders for each patient. The cabinets ensure that the correct medications are easily obtainable by the nurses, reducing the time spent sourcing the medications needed by their patients, and allowing more time for direct patient care.

This equipment safeguards all medications and provides tracking of each drug from the time it is prescribed until it is given to the patient. The technology tracks expiration dates, storage temperatures and stock levels – ensuring the correct drugs are available and in optimal condition. They ensure that medications with similar names and looks do not get mixed up, as every medication has a barcode to be scanned. The ADCs eliminate the potential for medication errors, by connecting directly to each patient's electronic Medication Administration Record. This connection allows nursing to select each medication directed by what has been prescribed by the Physician.

The inventory management of the ADCs also ensures that similarly named medications are not stored beside one another, alerts pop up on-screen when nurses select a medication (such as allergies, drug interactions and dosage warning), and that every Physician entered order is verified by a pharmacist to ensure clinical appropriateness for the patient.

Many benefits have come from having Automated Dispensing Cabinets at WDMH, including streamlined access to medications, increase in patient safety and reduction of medication related errors. This equipment provides safe and secure access to medications across the facility, and we hope that WDMH will continue to benefit from this technology for many years to come.

On behalf of WDMH staff, patients and patients' family members, we would like to extend our most sincere and profound appreciation for your contribution to the replacement of our Automated Dispensing Cabinets. We acknowledge, and admire, your support of our goal for increased patient safety, and we are honoured to be partnered with you in our journey for Compassionate Excellence.