An Update on the Sterilizers 

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With this training equipment, we can now replace outdated equipment, train our staff onsite and train more of them, and offer a wider variety of courses at WDMH.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

Thank you for helping us keep our patients safe

The Automated Dispensing Cabinets (ADCs) have arrived and we can't thank our donors enough!

The Foundation set out to fundraise for five ADC units and a pill packager. However, our donors stepped up once again, and because of that, we are able to fund the second phase of the project much sooner than anticipated.

It's because of our donors that we are able to bring improved patient safety to WDMH by purchasing 10 ADCs for medication and a pill packager. This new technology is part computer/part robot and ensures the right drug or drugs are dispensed to the right patient at the right time. It is like a vending machine that dispenses pre-packaged medication. Only one medication drawer can be unlocked at a time – both when stocking the machine and when a nurse is getting a patient’s medication. This simplifies the process and increases patient safety.

Thank you!

What are the benefits of the ADCs?

• Each staff member will have a unique code to sign into the cabinet
• The ADC will alert nurses if there are allergy concerns.
• Only one medication can be dispensed at a time because all other drawers remain locked. This results in safer inventory control.
• Nurses can access new medications for new patients quickly.
• Narcotics and other controlled drugs are more secure.
• ADCs can be easily upgraded and serviced, resulting in cost savings.