Thank you, from PRHC’s President & CEO

PRHC President & CEO, Dr. Peter McLaughlin

“We are fortunate to have some of the most hardworking, caring and dedicated people on our team at PRHC, and a wonderful community supporting us here in the Peterborough region.

On behalf of your hospital, I would like to acknowledge and thank our patients and their families; our leaders, healthcare professionals, staff and volunteers; our partners in the community and region for your ongoing insights, collaboration and support; and the PRHC Foundation and through them, our generous donors.

I’m thankful for the role you play in keeping PRHC at the cutting-edge of patient care. Your generosity is putting the right tools in the hands of our healthcare teams, so they can save lives, and it’s helping us bring groundbreaking new services to our region.”

2021 Peterborough’s Dragon Boat Festival raises $91,853.20!

Peterborough's Dragon Boat Festival 2021 cheque presentation

PRHC Foundation was honoured to receive the proceeds from the 2021 Peterborough’s Dragon Boat Festival – an amazing $91,853.20! Wow! Thank you!

2021 marked the Festival’s 20th anniversary and their second year as a virtual event. Their incredible 2021 donation brings their 20-year fundraising total to more than $3.7 million for breast cancer screening, diagnosis and treatment at Peterborough Regional Health Centre. 

The proceeds of this year’s Festival will help fund a new, state-of-the-art diagnostic ultrasound for the Breast Assessment Centre – enabling even better quality images so radiologists can detect the smallest and most difficult-to-see abnormalities quickly and accurately. It’s cutting-edge technology that will help our doctors, nurses and staff save lives.

Thank you so much to the Survivors Abreast Dragon Boat Team, the amazing organizing committee, Platinum Sponsor Kawartha Credit Union, and all the participants, fundraisers, sponsors, volunteers and donors who made this possible. We hope to see you again next year! In fact, planning for the 2022 Festival is already underway so stay tuned…

Millbrook bottle drive proceeds support PRHC’s healthcare workers

Millbrook Farm & Pet Supplies donation to the PRHC Foundation

Throughout July, Millbrook Farm & Pet Supplies held a bottle drive in support of Peterborough Regional Health Centre’s hardworking healthcare workers…and what a wonderful response from the community!

Thank you, Millbrook Farm & Pet Supplies and everyone who dropped off empties there, resulting in a generous donation of $3,100 to the PRHC Foundation that will help fund the advanced equipment and technology your regional hospital team uses to provide world-class care!

Bennett’s lawn sign initiative raises $2,002 in support of PRHC

Bennett's team present their donation

This past year, Bennett’s Furniture and Mattresses ran a lawn sign campaign to recognize and thank area hospital workers. For every sign customers displayed on their lawn, Bennett’s made a donation in support of a local hospital, including $2,002 to the PRHC Foundation!

Thank you to Bennett’s Home Furnishings for their generosity and dedication to their communities, and to their wonderful customers for showing their appreciation of healthcare providers through this great initiative!

Ushering in a new era of healthcare at PRHC

Cardiac doctor hugging patient at bedside

So much has been happening at Peterborough Regional Health Centre! We’re sharing a few of the highlights as we reflect on the last year and look ahead to the future of healthcare at PRHC…

For so many of us, the pandemic highlighted just how fortunate we are to have outstanding healthcare available in our region when we need it most.

Throughout COVID-19, your hospital’s role in our region became increasingly important, especially during the third wave when a critical care surge threatened to overwhelm Intensive Care Units across Ontario.

PRHC served as the lead for the five hospitals in our region and was the receiving hospital for patient transfers. The Health Centre ramped up its critical care capacity and over five months, accepted 76 patient transfers from outside our region to support the system-wide response to the surge.

As vaccination rates rose and case counts trended downwards, PRHC began ramping up non-urgent services and adjusted its visiting policy. No matter what comes, however, your hospital continues to manage and carefully allocate resources within this challenging healthcare landscape while continuing to advocate for the current and future patient care needs of PRHC, our community and our region.

Peterborough has become one of the fastest-growing communities in Canada, with one of the oldest populations. During the past five years, PRHC has seen increases in its patient volumes and the level of care those patients need. In response, the Health Centre has expanded and enhanced programs and services as both a community hospital and a regional referral hub for our surrounding communities. Their goal and ours remains the same: to continue to bring specialized care closer to home for patients. That’s a mission that’s never been more important.

One exciting project underway is the launch of PRHC’s Clinical Information System (CIS), Epic. Launching a CIS is one of the most important transformations a hospital can make. It’s been almost a decade in the works at PRHC. Epic will enable seamless access to health information across the Health Centre and six other hospital organizations, enhancing patient safety and quality of care. This collaboration represents the largest number of individual organizations joining together on the Epic system in Ontario. It will transform the way healthcare is delivered for generations to come.

Looking ahead to the next five, 10 and 20 years of the hospital’s evolution, PRHC is in the early stages of its Master Planning process.

In its bold vision for the future, PRHC will be the go-to large acute care hospital between Kingston and the Greater Toronto Area for patients to receive care. We and our donors will be by their side, helping fund essential equipment and technology, and exciting innovations, to support this transformation.

Thank you for your continued support as we usher in the next era of healthcare in our region!

Learn more about “the best kept secret in medicine”

A doctor poses outside the hospital

Dr. Fady Abdelsayed is an Interventional Radiologist at PRHC. We asked him to tell us about interventional radiology, known as “the best kept secret in medicine,” and how an upgrade and expansion to PRHC’s IR facilities will improve care for thousands of patients in our region…

What is interventional radiology?

In interventional radiology we use real-time imaging – radiology – to find and correct, or intervene in, health conditions. We use CT scans, fluoroscopy or ultrasound to steer needles, guidewires and catheters into tiny incisions in the skin or through blood vessels to perform a procedure.

What kind of procedures use interventional radiology?

Interventional radiology is becoming integral to patient care. We use it during scheduled procedures and in emergencies. It’s helpful for a wide range of health conditions and patients. If a patient has an infection, we might use interventional radiology to drain it. With cancer, we might use it to do a biopsy. Bleeding – we might use interventional radiology to stop the hemorrhage. And if surgery is too high-risk for a patient, this kind of procedure could be a safer, faster option. Some days, no two procedures are the same or an everyday procedure needs a new ‘twist’ to get the best result for that patient.

How does interventional radiology support great patient care at PRHC?

It helps us innovate and push the boundaries of what we can do for patients. It often lets us quickly give a patient relief from discomfort or help get them a diagnosis. Because it’s minimally invasive, patients have less pain, shorter hospital stays, and face less risks than with surgery.

If PRHC has this service now, why should donors invest in it?

Right now, interventional radiology is used for almost 6,000 patients at PRHC every year, but the two interventional radiology suites were built 13 years ago. They’re too small to fit the number of medical personnel and state-of-the-art equipment we need to expand and offer this care to more patients. We can do this with renovated suites, a new step-down unit and cutting-edge equipment. We’ll also be able to introduce new methods to treat things like stroke and cancer. We all want to give our patients the best care possible, but the government funds only a portion of the hospital’s costs. So, we’re very grateful to our community for helping us by donating to the PRHC Foundation. Thank you, donors!

For more information or to support this exciting investment, please click here or call 705-876-5000.

Impact Spotlight: Orthopedic Surgical Camera

A surgeon holds a camera beside surgical imaging equipment

Last year when your hospital needed help to fund a new, top of the line camera to facilitate orthopedic surgeries, our community responded with enthusiasm. As a result, the PRHC Foundation was able to fund this state-of-the-art camera. It’s been on site and in use since early this year.

Orthopedic Surgeon Dr. Crawford Dobson and his colleagues are grateful for your support. The high definition camera is helping them perform minimally invasive arthroscopic knee and shoulder repair for hundreds of patients a year, so they can quickly get back to living their lives with less pain and more mobility.

“Our new high definition camera allows us to see very subtle differences in tissues to diagnose and treat conditions that we might not otherwise have been able to treat or done so easily,” says Dr. Dobson. “Thank you for all your generous donations. Without you, we wouldn’t be able to function in the same capacity.”