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.”

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.”

Impact Spotlight: Wireless ECG Machines

Laboratory Medicine Technicians stand with ECGs machines

Thanks to donors, six new ECG machines with advanced, wireless technology have been added to PRHC’s fleet. This means that cardiologists can access an ECG from a secure server quickly and on the spot to diagnose heart conditions, especially in urgent situations such as a Code STEMI where diagnosis begins in the ambulance on the way to PRHC’s Cardiac Cath Lab.

PRHC Interventional Cardiologist Dr. Katy Shufelt explains how these new machines are impacting patient care at your hospital:

“Having wireless technology for our ECGs has really advanced care at PRHC. When patients have an ECG, it’s immediately uploaded to a secure server and cardiologists can log on and access that ECG immediately. In the past, that process would have been much slower. And that five or ten minutes more can be the difference for a patient’s life.”

PRHC’s Laboratory Medicine Technicians (pictured) and Dr. Shufelt want to say “thank you” for making such an impact on patient care at your hospital!

If you’d like to make an impact, please donate online, or for more information, please call 705-876-5000.

Photo by Mary Zita Payne.

We love our hardworking healthcare workers!

A manager gives two nurses gift boxes
A message of thanks on a card with a gift box

Peterborough Regional Health Centre has an incredible team of nurses, staff and doctors. Over the last year, they have demonstrated courage and strength while continuing to provide care and support for patients and their families.

We’re so proud of them, and grateful for the work they do, every day. And we’re grateful to all of the donors who have helped us support them throughout the pandemic.

Donor generosity funded tools and supports such as additional scrubs, new plexiglass screening stations at hospital entry points, and iPads and supportive equipment for the Virtual Visiting Program so isolated patients can connect with loved ones.

Thanks to your donations, PRHC is better positioned in 2021 to continue caring for as many patients as possible while keeping patients, families, volunteers and PRHC’s 3,200 workers safe.

Now, PRHC Foundation is honoured to partner again with your hospital to show our healthcare providers how much we – and you, through your donations and kind messages of thanks – appreciate them. This week, 3,200 wellness kits made possible by the generosity of Foundation donors are being delivered to the Health Centre’s nurses, staff and physicians. Each kit includes both fun and healthy treats, and self-care products.

We also included one of a selection of the hundreds of personal notes of appreciation Foundation donors sent to us this year for our PRHC team members. We join the hospital in hoping these tokens of our and your gratitude bring a smile to their faces. 

As they tackle the third wave, our work continues. Our mission has never been more important. In addition to funding PRHC’s most urgent needs including COVID-19, your gifts are helping to give the hospital’s experts the essential tools they need to save lives.

If you’d like to support your hospital, please visit prhcfoundation.ca/love/. There you can send a message to the PRHC team and make a donation in their honour. Thank you for continuing to show them your grateful hearts!

Impact Spotlight: Orthopedic Surgery Power System 8

Masked surgical suite assistant holds a surgical tool

Recently, donor generosity funded the Power System 8, a battery-operated handpiece used for up to 1,300 orthopedic surgeries every year at PRHC.

Used nonstop for elective surgeries as well as with trauma cases such as broken hips, this one handpiece with interchangeable attachments is an essential tool for total joint replacement and helps patients achieve a more active lifestyle without the pain or disability they experienced before surgery. The upgraded handpiece can also be temporarily submerged for increased sterilization, helping reduce the risk of infection for our patients.

Cheryl Richards, PRHC Surgical Suite Assistant, says “Thank you!” to everyone who helped fund this essential piece of equipment. Because of the generosity of PRHC Foundation donors, orthopedic surgery patients are receiving the care they need to recover from their pain and injuries.

If you’d like to make an impact, please donate online, or for more information, please call 705-876-5000.

Patient says “thank you” for cancer care close to home

Doctor on stool and patient on bed smiling

At age 41, Melissa Hinze was a typically busy working mom, running a home business. But in October 2016, she visited PRHC’s Breast Assessment Centre with a suspicious lump. Scans revealed cancer in both breasts. She had biopsies and received an emergency diagnosis on the spot.

Melissa’s instinct was to fight. “What do we do next?” she asked. She met a patient navigator, received a referral for surgery, and shortly thereafter, had a double mastectomy. Since then, with her focus on living with cancer under the care of Dr. Neera Jeyabalan, Melissa has had hormone treatments, chemotherapy, further surgeries and hospital stays.

“PRHC is second to none,” she says about the donor-funded equipment and technology she’s so thankful for. She can’t imagine having to travel and stay elsewhere for treatment. Instead, all her care happens close to home.

Receiving care locally has been essential to Melissa’s ability to stay motivated. It’s allowed her to see life a little differently and notice what she calls “the silver linings” that come from having world-class cancer care close to home, thanks to donor generosity.

“Coming in here [to PRHC] and having great care is number one,” Melissa says, and for that she’s extremely grateful. “Because of this community, I have great care and the smartest, compassionate doctor. Even during COVID-19, I always feel safe coming to PRHC.” This allows her and her husband to focus on her care and healthy living at home, where she’s spending a lot more quality time with her kids.

Donor-funded tools and scrubs are supporting and protecting PRHC patients and staff

Last year at the start of the pandemic, as PRHC’s leaders and staff mobilized to prepare for the spread of COVID-19, the PRHC Foundation and our donors mobilized to support them. A fund was created to respond to urgent pandemic-related needs, and we were overwhelmed with your outpouring of support for your hospital.

A direct mail appeal and generous matching gift commitments inspired community donations. Online donors made tribute gifts in honour of frontline workers and sent messages of thanks to them. Under social distancing restrictions, businesses, organizations and individuals got creative with their own initiatives and directed funds to the cause.

As a result, the COVID-19 response fund had an immediate impact, helping aid and protect healthcare providers and patients. You funded a crucial supply of additional scrubs for staff and physicians, new plexiglass screening stations at hospital entry points, and iPads and supportive equipment so isolated palliative patients can connect with loved ones.

And when Trent University donated residence space as temporary housing so PRHC staff could isolate while working on the front line, your donations funded some of the additional costs necessary in support of this arrangement.

In addition to generous donations to the Foundation, you showed your love for PRHC in many ways: window and lawn signs, chalk drawings, gratitude rocks, drive-through parades, donations of personal protective equipment and homemade masks, and so much more. All of this kindness has been so appreciated.

You’ve demonstrated that we are all in this together. On behalf of everyone at PRHC and the PRHC Foundation, thank you.

If you’d like to make an impact, please donate online, or for more information, please call 705-876-5000.

Donor-funded equipment in the NICU is helping support our smallest, sickest patients close to home

Now more than ever before, we know a health crisis can strike at any time. When it does, we need our hospital to be equipped with state-of-the-art technology to give us the best care possible. So this year, we are particularly grateful for your generous support of Peterborough Regional Health Centre.

Your support is making an incredible difference. Recent investments in areas such as women’s and children’s programs are helping save and change lives every day.

Thanks to donors, a new radiant heater/warmer is in use in PRHC’s Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), where 365 babies were treated last year. For newborn patients who need additional, critical care, the radiant heater/warmer provides open, 360-degree access for all members of the medical team and offers an accessible working surface for ventilating and resuscitating. It takes constant measurements of temperature that the unit itself can respond to, and the unit is adjustable, so family members can be at the same height as the infant and participate in family-centred care.

In this and other areas, your donations are fueling vital investments that are used by our doctors, nurses and staff every day to deliver the outstanding care we all want for the people we love when a health crisis strikes. They’re also bringing innovative new treatment options to our region and helping PRHC attract and retain the best and the brightest healthcare professionals.

On behalf of the Health Centre, the Foundation, and most especially, our patients and their families, thank you for the commitment and generosity you’ve shown to PRHC!

If you’d like to make an impact, please donate online, or for more information, please call 705-876-5000.