Foundation reaches its goal, new hospital technology on the way
by Mark Hebert
With the help of the community and local businesses, the Mineral Community Hospital Foundation raised the matching funds portion of a federal grant, allowing a revolutionary imaging system to be incorporated into the Superior facility.
The federal grant was worth $262,000, meaning that the group needed to come up with $61,000 for its share. The organization did this with some good old-fashioned fundraising and some large and generous contributions from local businesses and citizens.
Blackfoot Telecommunications contributed $15,000, Town Pump gave $2,500 while citizens from the community gave about $23,000. That left the Hospital Foundation with about $21,000 to reach the $61,000 goal.
The Hospital Foundation ran several fundraising events, including a golf tournament which generated roughly $9,000 and an auction (another $9,000). With monies left over from previous year's events, the foundation went over the top.
The Mineral County Hospital is now hooked in with hospitals in Ronan, Anaconda, and Polson in a revolutionary new way for hospital to share data. The system is called the Picture Archiving and Communications System (PACS) and St. Luke’s in Ronan was the first hospital in Montana to use the system.
“That means that you can transmit X-rays and other MRI’s any way you want, around the world,” said Con Warren, vice president of the Hospital Foundation. “It means that our doctors can take an X-ray and immediately send it to a doctor in Missoula. As a rural hospital, it is a great advantage to have.”
PACS are computers or networks dedicated to the storage, retrieval, distribution and presentation of images.With the decreasing price of digital storage, PACS systems provide a growing cost and space advantage over film archives.
PACS replace hard-copy based means of managing medical images, such as film archives, and allow off-site viewing and reporting. That means, for example, a patient in a motor vehicle accident on I-90 can be treated in Superior and transported to Missoula, and the X-rays will be available before the patient even arrives in Missoula.
The images are also available to multiple practitioners at different locations simultaneously, allowing consultation.
“It’s a big step up for us and we greatly appreciate everyone who donated,” said Warren. “We feel really fortunate to have this system. We get a lot of emergency cases out here, mostly because of accidents on I-90, and this will really help."
Besides thanking the community and local businesses, Warren pointed out another crucial player in making sure the money was raised and the grant was secure.
“Muffy Lincoln is the real driving force behind all of this,” said Warren of the foundation’s president. “She deserves a lot of credit. She has unlimited energy and she’s just so humble about it all. She gave a lot of her time to this project.”
The most money spent by the Hospital Foundation prior to the group’s latest endeavor into PACS was $9,000 for a refurbished operating table. “This is a huge step up,” said Warren."
The next fundraiser for the foundation is a golf tournament in September with all proceeds going toward the foundation's hospital fund. In the past, funds have been spent on such items as operating tables, VCR’s and CD players for patients, the panting of hospital rooms, mechanical lifts for patients and medical books for the doctors.
“The money just rotates in and out,” said Warren.
Warren said that it has taken several different companies to get the PACS up and almost running at the hospital and one more company has to put the finishing touches on the system before it is up and running.
“It will be very soon,” he said.
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With the help of the community and local businesses, the Mineral Community Hospital Foundation raised the matching funds portion of a federal grant, allowing a revolutionary imaging system to be incorporated into the Superior facility.
The federal grant was worth $262,000, meaning that the group needed to come up with $61,000 for its share. The organization did this with some good old-fashioned fundraising and some large and generous contributions from local businesses and citizens.
Blackfoot Telecommunications contributed $15,000, Town Pump gave $2,500 while citizens from the community gave about $23,000. That left the Hospital Foundation with about $21,000 to reach the $61,000 goal.
The Hospital Foundation ran several fundraising events, including a golf tournament which generated roughly $9,000 and an auction (another $9,000). With monies left over from previous year's events, the foundation went over the top.
The Mineral County Hospital is now hooked in with hospitals in Ronan, Anaconda, and Polson in a revolutionary new way for hospital to share data. The system is called the Picture Archiving and Communications System (PACS) and St. Luke’s in Ronan was the first hospital in Montana to use the system.
“That means that you can transmit X-rays and other MRI’s any way you want, around the world,” said Con Warren, vice president of the Hospital Foundation. “It means that our doctors can take an X-ray and immediately send it to a doctor in Missoula. As a rural hospital, it is a great advantage to have.”
PACS are computers or networks dedicated to the storage, retrieval, distribution and presentation of images.With the decreasing price of digital storage, PACS systems provide a growing cost and space advantage over film archives.
PACS replace hard-copy based means of managing medical images, such as film archives, and allow off-site viewing and reporting. That means, for example, a patient in a motor vehicle accident on I-90 can be treated in Superior and transported to Missoula, and the X-rays will be available before the patient even arrives in Missoula.
The images are also available to multiple practitioners at different locations simultaneously, allowing consultation.
“It’s a big step up for us and we greatly appreciate everyone who donated,” said Warren. “We feel really fortunate to have this system. We get a lot of emergency cases out here, mostly because of accidents on I-90, and this will really help."
Besides thanking the community and local businesses, Warren pointed out another crucial player in making sure the money was raised and the grant was secure.
“Muffy Lincoln is the real driving force behind all of this,” said Warren of the foundation’s president. “She deserves a lot of credit. She has unlimited energy and she’s just so humble about it all. She gave a lot of her time to this project.”
The most money spent by the Hospital Foundation prior to the group’s latest endeavor into PACS was $9,000 for a refurbished operating table. “This is a huge step up,” said Warren."
The next fundraiser for the foundation is a golf tournament in September with all proceeds going toward the foundation's hospital fund. In the past, funds have been spent on such items as operating tables, VCR’s and CD players for patients, the panting of hospital rooms, mechanical lifts for patients and medical books for the doctors.
“The money just rotates in and out,” said Warren.
Warren said that it has taken several different companies to get the PACS up and almost running at the hospital and one more company has to put the finishing touches on the system before it is up and running.
“It will be very soon,” he said.
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