MCMH given $400K
Patients at Montgomery County Memorial Hospital will soon benefit from access to the latest computed tomography (CT) diagnostic technology.
The advancement is made possible through a $400,000 grant from The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust’s Rural Healthcare Program.
A press release from the Helmsley Trust said its award will go toward a new 64-slice CT scanner. CT scanners provide essential diagnostic images of structures inside the body. A new CT scanner will allow for faster scans that produce high-quality images, allowing medical staff to quickly determine health status and course of treatment while giving patients access to up-to-date healthcare technology close to home.
Diane McGrew, RN, chief nursing executive at MCMH, said, “We are delighted to have been chosen as a Helmsley Charitable Trust CT scanner grant recipient. This grant will make it possible for our hospital to develop a lifesaving emergency stroke program. Together, with our local EMS and a regional tertiary health system partner, we will develop a program to rapidly recognize and intervene in strokes as they are occurring.
“This CT scanner will enable us to make a rapid and clear image of the brain while the stroke is actually in progress, then we will transmit that image to a physician specialist who may order a ‘clotbuster’ drug to dissolve the clot causing the stroke. This generous Helmsley gift will save lives and lessen the physical debility caused by stroke in our service area.”
MCMH is one of 41 grant recipients across the region to benefit from this round of funding to purchase CT scanners. Helmsley’s Rural Healthcare Program has granted more than $30 million to support the purchase of new, 32-slice or higher CT scanners at critical access hospitals in
a seven-state region.
“Our goal is to ensure that people who live in rural America have access to quality healthcare as close to home as possible,” said Walter Panzirer, a trustee of the Helmsley Charitable Trust. “To achieve this, rural hospitals need to be viable and they need to have up-to-date equipment, so patients can receive essential healthcare services locally. This initiative is one of many that aims to improve healthcare access and health outcomes across the upper Midwest.”
The funding initiative was the result of a survey of critical access hospitals in the Helmsley’s rural healthcare program’s seven-state funding region. Capital equipment, particularly CT scanners, was identified as a top need by many hospitals. In addition, a new Medicare policy went into effect January 1, 2016, that reduced reimbursement for certain studies on CT scanners that do not meet specific radiation dose requirements.
Since 2015, the Helmsley Charitable Trust has awarded 78 grants totaling over $30 million to outfit hospitals with new, state-of-the-art CT scanners.
The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust aspires to improve lives by supporting effective nonprofits in health, select place-based initiatives, education and human services. Since 2008, when Helmsley began its active grantmaking, it has committed more than $1.8 billion for a wide range of charitable purposes. Helmsley’s Rural Healthcare Program funds innovative projects that use information technologies to connect rural patients to emergency medical care, bring the latest medical therapies to patients in remote areas, and provide state-of-the-art training for rural hospitals and EMS personnel. To date, this program has awarded more than $300 million to organizations and initiatives in the upper Midwest states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, Minnesota, Iowa and Montana. For more information, visit www.helmsleytrust.org.