ELLINWOOD — The Ellinwood Area Health Foundation newest project is to provide a wireless telemetry system for cardiac patients at the hospital. The amount needed to complete the project is $15,000-$16,000. Donations are tax deductible.
“It is a wireless heart monitor,” said Michelle Kowalsky, president of the EAHF. “We’ve raised $4,000. It cost $20,000.”
The hospital’s current telemetry unit is an old one that they can no longer get parts for. With the new, patients will be able to get out of bed and move around. Also, nurses will be able to monitor the patients from the nurses station.
A telemetry unit provides continuous electronic monitory. They monitor heart rate, heart rhythm, breathing and health measures for patients who have had a heart attack or when a patient is seriously ill, allowing staff to respond to emergent problems quickly.
With remote telemetry, a nurse can monitor all of the patients in the unit from the nursing station. Monitoring can also be done at the patients bedside.
Telemetry units can also be used in sleep clinics.
“It benefits patients, and it’s a needed item,” said Kowalsky. “We hope by spring to get enough(funding).”
Last year, the foundation purchased 15 hospital beds, provided scholarship assistance for a local paramedic, and sponsored the quarterly lab fair at the Ellinwood Hospital Clinic.
In addition, the Foundation and the Ellinwood District Hospital Board of Directors are selling tax credits for the hospital renovation project.