$37,000 support for MacPherson Smith
22 August 2024
Community generosity has not only ensured consultations with GPs and a variety of medical services is much easier for residents at Stawell’s Macpherson Smith Care Community – it has also allowed them to have involvement in their medical care and the decisions that are made.
Stawell Hospital Foundation has donated $37,000 to the Grampians Health care community to buy a new Visionflex all-in-one Telehealth cart. The money is also funding a new bladder scanner for the care community.
Care Community manager Tess Beniga said previous Telehealth consults were done with a nurse holding a laptop and relying on its built-in camera.
“The vision for the doctors wasn’t that great and the system was clunky,” Ms Beniga said.
“The Visionflex cart is much more mobile and easy for the nurses to move from room to room but it also has a hand held diagnostic camera which the nurse can easily hold in position to show the consulting GP any specific area of the body.
“Its other features include an ECG heart monitor, pulse oximeter, blood pressure cuff and an infrared forehead thermometer, all programmed to a medical grade computer.
“We are very grateful to the Foundation for their generosity because not only do we have a great Telehealth cart but the bladder scanner was also badly in need of upgrading.
Ms Beniga said the new bladder scanner ensured MSCC nurses could do an accurate scan of a patient’s bladder.
“This allows for a quick diagnosis and subsequent treatment as opposed to a more invasive catheter option which can be painful as well as having associated risk of infection.
“The entire scan takes only a couple of minutes to complete and being a mobile scanner it is much better for our residents as the scanner can be taken to their bedside rather than the patient having to be transported up to the hospital.”
Stawell Foundation’s newest member Meg Blake said it was gratifying for her organisation to be able to provide such useful equipment, particularly the bladder scanner.
“We get to make the donation but the money could not be raised without the generosity of the Stawell and district community,” Ms Blake said.
“This has been a major fundraising project, and we are thankful for the support from everyone.”
Grampians Health Chief of People and Culture Claire Woods acknowledged the benevolence of the Stawell community and the important work of the Stawell Foundation.
“I want to particularly thank the Foundation for their amazing support,” Ms Woods said.
“This is another great example of how partnering with our communities through collaborative engagement is helping to deliver care that is responsive to local community needs.”