Emenhiser Center and Healing Garden make lasting impact on patients and visitors
Kelley Perry, a cardiology technician at Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital, was recently returning to Oregon on an international flight, seated next to a Japanese businessman. The two began talking and the businessman asked Kelley where she was headed. She replied that she was returning to Lebanon, and that she worked at the hospital. He looked startled and said that he was also headed to Lebanon, where he does business with international grass seed companies.
“He said that he makes a point of coming to our hospital on each business trip to visit our Healing Garden,” Kelley said, “and how much he enjoys the effort we’ve made to promote such a needed healing environment for our staff, patients and visitors. He encourages others to come here and see the garden. We’re famous in Japan!”
Built with generous donor support, the Healing Garden has truly transformed the hospital and cultivated an international reputation for the healing environment it creates. The Emenhiser Center, also built with donor support, overlooks the garden and provides a beautiful place for patients undergoing hours of chemotherapy and other infusion treatments.
Since opening in 2006, the Emenhiser Center has treated more than 900 patients in the community, and each of them has been able to find comfort and solace in the healing garden.
“I want every single foundation donor to know how much of a difference the garden and the Emenhiser Center make for our patients,” said Jan Hull, manager of the Emenhiser Center. “These patients are going through extremely difficult medical treatments, and knowing that they get to come here and be in this beautiful place makes all the difference in the world.”
Foundation donors continue to help battle diabetes in east Linn
Hundreds of supporters spent their Fourth of July in 2009 helping Tim Hindmarsh, MD, in the battle against diabetes in east Linn County. These folks were a part of setting a new record of success, as Act Alive, Dr. Hindmarsh’s annual fundraiser for the Lebanon Community Hospital Foundation, raised almost $10,000 for the foundation’s Diabetes Fund.
Act Alive features a community bicycle ride and run/walk, in addition to skydiving stunts by Dr. Hindmarsh and other local physicians – all in an effort to raise awareness of the importance of exercise in preventing and managing diabetes. The 2009 Act Alive took place in conjunction with Lebanon’s Star Spangled Celebration at Cheadle Lake Park.
The Lebanon Community Hospital Foundation helped more than 30 patients in 2009 with diabetes education scholarships. The scholarships are used to help low-income patients with diabetes get the help they need to manage the disease – through diabetes management classes, supplies and more. Since establishing the diabetes education support fund in 2005, the foundation has provided more than $20,000 in assistance to patients with diabetes.
New lab equipment improves quality of care
Although most patients and visitors never see it, the laboratory at Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital is one of the hospital’s most important departments, affecting almost every area of care. Any time a patient requires blood or needs to have his or her blood tested, the lab is called into action. In fact, the hospital lab performs an average of 750,000 tests every year!
The Lebanon Community Hospital Foundation recently purchased $30,000 worth of equipment for the lab, ensuring that lab staff have state-of-the-art tools to do their jobs. The largest item purchased was a new high-tech blood bank freezer, which allows the lab to store large quantities of blood at precise temperatures.
“As our hospital continues to get busier, our need for blood products increases,” said lab Manager Steve Probert. “This freezer gives us the capacity we need to make sure we have frozen blood products on hand when a patient requires it.”
The foundation also purchased a backup blood gas analyzer for the lab. “Blood gas analysis is critical because it helps a physician immediately assess arterial Oxygen, Carbon Dioxide and pH status of a patient’s blood,” Probert explained. “This testing is essential to determine life threatening situations and it is needed stat. The backup analyzer that donors bought for us means that we can respond if our main analyzer isn’t functioning.”
Probert and his staff are deeply appreciative for the support of foundation donors. “Personally, I am amazed at the ability the foundation has shown to help enhance our health care delivery here in the laboratory,” he said.