|
|
||||
Capital campaign co-chairs named for NUMC surgery department expansion, renovationNew Ulm Medical Center recently announced the designation of two chairpersons to lead the facility into a community-wide capital campaign to raise the $750,000 necessary for an appropriate expansion and renovation in the surgery department. The co-chairs will be Mario DeSouza, MD and Kathleen Backer, a member of the NUMC Foundation Board. Dr. DeSouza is an orthopedic surgeon who has been affiliated with NUMC since 1990. DeSouza has been active in the local Crop Walk, Relay for Life and religious education and other events at his church, St. Mary’s Catholic Church. “As our anesthetic and surgical techniques continually evolve in terms of improved safety and patient comfort the operating room is simply becoming too crowded with all the additional equipment needed,” DeSouza said of the need for the expansion. “One of our operating rooms is already too small for major orthopedic procedures. By improving the size of the operating rooms we will be able to continue to advance our surgical and anesthetic techniques while increasing the flexibility of scheduling surgery for the convenience of our patients.” Backer’s background includes director of Brown County Historical Society, fundraiser for the BCHS, director of Midway Village and Museum Center in Rockford, Ill., executive director of the FarmAmerica ag interpretive center in Waseca and executive director of Heritagefest, Inc. Backer’s position as co-chair of NUMC’s capital campaign and member of the Foundation Board is a volunteer position. “When I was first asked to be a volunteer on the Foundation Board I was hesitant – I thought ‘healthcare is big business, why do they need a Foundation? Why do they need philanthropy?’ I couldn’t quite get past the high cost of health care and wondered if this role was really for me,” Backer said. “In the three years I’ve been on the board, I have come to realize that a health care organization can’t do this alone. The medical center needs the community and the community needs the medical center.” Backer said the project is important to her as a member of the community and sees this as an opportunity for the community to be part of continuing to bring the best health care possible to the area. When the New Ulm Medical Center completed a major renovation and expansion project in early 2006, one of the areas in the building that was not touched during that project was the surgery department. It was determined that renovations in that department would be so extensive that it merited a project all its own. “The current surgery center was built in 1962 and has not had a major renovation in more than 25 years,” said Lori Wightman, president of NUMC. “Medicine has changed dramatically since then. We have increased our same-day and outpatient surgery significantly and we continue to introduce new technology.” “We are very fortunate to be backed by the resources of Allina Hospitals and Clinics,” Wightman said. “They have pledged $2.75 million to this project. We are confident that we can raise the contributions in the community to fund the remaining $750,000.” The project will include expanding operating rooms by up to 25 percent, improving the pre-operative and recovery areas to promote privacy and comfort, enhancing the family waiting room environment, and creating new and improved spaces for physicians and staff to care for patients. NUMC’s surgery department cares for more than 1,800 patients each year. The department has simply outgrown its space, Wightman said. “Beyond that, there are updates that need to be done in terms of the atmosphere of the department,” Wightman said. Citing studies that prove that the hospital environment can be important in the healing process for a patient, Wightman said a big part of the renovation will be to modernize the look of the department. Now that the chairs for the project have been named, the project will begin to move forward raising the necessary funds and touring surgical suites throughout the state for design and architecture ideas. |
||||
|
||||
New Ulm Medical Center
|
||||
|
||||
Print
Send to a Friend