CAMBRIDGE — Health care for the people of Dorchester County continues to benefit from the generosity of The Dorchester General Hospital Foundation says Brian Leutner, executive director, UM Shore Medical Center at Dorchester. Under the guidance of Ida Jane Baker, president, the Foundation Board recently provided $78,209 to support equipment purchases for use in respiratory care and Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation.
Nearly $66,000 of the Foundation funds enabled the hospital to acquire updated technology for use in treating patients presenting with respiratory distress. The new equipment includes two V-500 ventilators, which are used for patients whose breathing difficulty is severe enough to require intubation, and four V-30 noninvasive ventilators, which support breathing in patients whose distress is less severe.
“We previously rented ventilators at considerable expense from an outside medical equipment company,” says Ed Liske, lead respiratory therapist at the Dorchester hospital. “Now that we own new, state-of-the-art ventilators, we are able to meet patients’ care needs without undue expense, and we greatly appreciate the Foundation for making this a reality. Especially during the winter months, when colds, flu and pneumonia are more likely to affect people with cardiopulmonary conditions like COPD and congestive heart failure, these ventilators are in very frequent use.”
In Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation, the Foundation funded the purchase of the six new telemetry monitors costing $12,236. Telemetry monitors enable rehab team members to keep a close eye on patients who are using treadmills, exercise bicycles and other equipment. “The monitors are a key component of our rehab program,” says Sally Worm, manager, Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation. “They measure patients’ heart rate and heart rhythm, and feed the information into our computer so that we can help patients safely advance in their rehab therapy. We are very grateful to the Foundation for recognizing the importance of having state of the art technology in cardiopulmonary rehab care, and for enabling us to purchase these monitors.”
The Foundation’s current fundraising drive is to support the purchase of equipment for use in the Dorchester hospital’s laboratory services department. Unfortunately, due to an error at the Cambridge Post Office, many return envelopes sent by donors were mistakenly returned to them as undeliverable during November and December. The problem has been corrected and mail to the Foundation is now being delivered, as in the past, to P.O. Box 439, U.S. Post Office, 301 High St., Cambridge, MD, 21613. Anyone wishing to contact Mrs. Baker regarding the status of their donation or other matters regarding the Dorchester General Hospital Foundation may call her, 410-228-8182.
“The generosity of our local community in support of our hospital and its services continues to make an important difference in the quality of health care for Dorchester residents,” says Mrs. Baker. “We truly appreciate it.”