We Win Top Awards Because We Make Your Dollars Work!

As a not-for-profit organization, the West Parry Sound Health Centre Foundation (WPSHCF) ensures every dollar that you donate is used efficiently. Together, we achieve the vision: To provide support for extraordinary health care in cottage country. We are so terrific at making your dollars count, we win awards! The foundation is proud to be the recipient of the 2011 Small Organization Excellence in Fundraising Award from the Association of Fundraising Professionals.

In winning the award we were judged on: our fundraising infrastructure, our streamlined administrative structure, our effective use of fundraising resources both technical and human capital, our creativity and the impact our campaigns have on the community.

At the West Parry Sound Health Centre Foundation all designated dollars go to health programs or equipment purchases. All undesignated dollars go to the current Health Centre priority. The Health Centre has $1.4 million in Top and Medium Priority needs as identified by our medical staff. The Foundation is targeting to buy $700,000 worth of top priority equipment needs for 2012/2013:

$200,000 Safe Dose Machine for the Pharmacy
$150,00 C-Arm for Surgery (our machine is broken, we are using a borrowed one – the C-Arm provides images of highest precision directly in OR)
$316,694 to replace 3 anesthetic machines in Surgery, and
continuing support for the local installation of Electronic Health Records (EHR)

The Foundation is keenly aware that two of the three Anesthetic Machines are fast approaching end of their life span. Our Operating Room performs between 3 and 4,000 surgeries annually and 2 machines are 12 years old. Worse, critical components on these machines are no longer serviceable. The third machine is 6 years old - 10 to 15 years is a normal lifespan. Patient Safety procedures stipulate similar platforms are required.

In 2011 donors bought:

a $48,000 Tissue Processor for the Laboratory
a $650,000 Digital Mammography Unit
a $85,000 Opti-Vue for Ophthalmology
a $13,325 Anatomical Pathology Verification System (reduces sample misidentification in the Lab), and
an emergency $60,000 purchase of software and hardware to ensure 24 hour / 7 day a week access to our radiologist

The new Mammography Unit was installed in January 2012 and is fully operational. Any women enrolled in the Ontario Breast Screening Program can book their mammogram at the Health Centre. The Ophthalmology equipment is under Request For Proposal purchase review.

The Health Centre is responsible for readying itself locally to connect to the central EHR program. The provincial completion date is 2015. While much progress has been made, work remains to be done to ensure we are ready to connect. In 2011, seasonal husband and wife team Jim Meekison and Carolyn Keystone donated $100,000 to further develop local EHR. (This in addition to completing the $57,000 purchase of new monitor defibrillators in all remaining areas of need in the Health Centre – for the story see the section Lives That Have Touched Us.)

Our geographic isolation demands we keep all equipment current should any of our families or any one of us be stuck by an emergency. Distances to major centres can be medically critical: Sudbury is 165 km North; Barrie is 135 km South; and Toronto is 225 km South.