Madelia Community Hospital & Clinic Receives $138,000 Grant From Helmsley Charitable Trust X-Ray Initiative
Patients at Madelia Community Hospital & Clinic will soon benefit from studies using the latest in x-ray technology made possible through a grant from The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust’s Rural Healthcare Program.
The Helmsley Charitable Trust has awarded Madelia Community Hospital & Clinic $138,000 for a Shimadzu MobileDaRt Evolution – MX8 Version Mobile X-Ray System, part of a $14.2 million initiative to upgrade x-ray technology at 50 rural hospitals in the Upper Midwest.
“We appreciate the Helmsley Charitable Trust’s commitment to rural healthcare,” said Jeff Mengenhausen, CEO, Madelia Community Hospital & Clinic. “This incredible gift empowers the Madelia Community Hospital & Clinic to provide superior x-ray capabilities for emergencies, inpatients, and surgeries. Receiving this portable x-ray is another step towards ensuring we have the most up-to-date equipment to provide high-quality care and the best patient experience possible for the communities we serve.”
Walter Panzirer, a Trustee for the Helmsley Charitable Trust, said the initiative represents the organization’s latest multi-site initiative to improve the quality of healthcare available to rural residents in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska and Wyoming.
“Our goal has always been to improve access to exceptional medical treatment for those who live in rural America,” said Panzirer. “To that end, rural hospitals need to remain viable and have the latest equipment to ensure their patients can receive essential, quality healthcare services locally. This initiative is just one of many that strives to improve healthcare outcomes throughout the Upper Midwest.”
Panzirer said critical access hospitals in the seven-state region are hampered by outdated equipment. Over the last four years, the Helmsley Charitable Trust’s Rural Healthcare Program has awarded more than $30 million in grants to 82 hospitals in the Upper Midwest to purchase state-of-the-art computer tomography (CT) scanners.
The Helmsley Charitable Trust’s latest initiative addresses out-of-date x-ray technology that underserves patients and jeopardizes the health of physicians and x-ray technicians, according to Panzirer.
The $14.2 million in grants will allow replacement of a total of 87 pieces of equipment, including: 32 fixed x-ray devices with an average age of 16 years; 48 portable x-ray devices with an average age of 28 years; two fixed fluoroscopy devices averaging nine years; and five portable C-arms with an average age of 16 years.
“With one particular grant to a rural North Dakota hospital, the trust is replacing an x-ray device that has been in service since 1967,” Panzirer said. “Technology has advanced so much, even over the last decade, that these grants, allowing for the purchase of advanced x-ray devices, will provide incredible benefits for medical workers and their patients for the foreseeable future.”
