(SitNews) Ketchikan, Alaska - In the Ketchikan Medical Center lobby, there is a small but very special gift shop. The shop has cards and baby gifts, jewelry and toys, sock, scarves and purses and it is staffed by an incredible team of volunteers from the KMC Auxiliary. These dedicated volunteers give their time to manage and staff the gift shop, so it always makes a tidy profit.

Each year the Auxiliary reinvests a significant portion of those profits into the Ketchikan Medical Center. At its annual meeting this past Saturday, February 16, the Auxiliary reviewed funding proposals from various department managers and staff. Ultimately, the Auxiliary decided on its largest ever single award of $26,000 for a Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter (PICC) — an IV method used for patients with difficult IV access or who require long term IV antibiotic or drug therapy. The request came from the PICC Team, which represents the group of nurses at KMC who are certified in PICC line insertion.

Patients will benefit from the new ultrasound technology that is best practice technique and current standard of care. “This unit will be a tremendous addition to our medical center,” said Tom Day, RN, clinical nurse lead for the project. “It will make IV insertion much easier on the patient and nurses will be able to position the IV with minimal delay.”

This portable unit will be used throughout the hospital as well as the Transitional Care Unit.

“Choosing to fund the request from the PICC Team made a lot of sense since it will benefit so many,” said Auxiliary President Carolyn Wilsie. “We had about $45,000 to allocate but we had almost $110,000 in requests. I wish we could have given to all the proposals. These are always difficult decisions.”

The Auxiliary also chose to fund:

• $5000 for Education Materials for Surgery, Orthopedic & Sports Medicine and Women’s Health,
• $2800 for an Enhanced Standing Aid for the Transitional Care Unit,
• $1800 for an Adult Platform Walker in ICU,
• $2000 for a Temporal Thermometer for Home Health,
• $5700 for a Bilirubin Meter for Pediatrics, and
• $2550 for a machine to monitor blood coagulation levels in Primary Care

Wilsie was reelected as President at the luncheon as were previous officers, Vice President Margaret Lynne, Treasurer Maria Carr and Secretary Marty West.

Source of News: 

PeaceHealth Ketchikan Medical Center
www.peacehealth.org/ketchikan

SitNews ©2013
Stories In The News
Ketchikan, Alaska

Articles & photographs that appear in SitNews may be protected by copyright and may not be reprinted without written permission from and payment of any required fees to the proper sources.