Hospital district receives grant

Patients at Hot Springs County Hospital District will soon benefit from studies using the latest in x-ray technology made possible through a grant from The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust’s Rural Healthcare Program.

The Helmsley Charitable Trust has awarded Hot Springs County Hospital District $375,697 for a portable digital x-ray machine and a mobile C-arm x-ray machine, part of a $14.2 million initiative to upgrade x-ray technology at 50 rural hospitals in the Upper Midwest.

“We are extremely excited and honored to receive this grant,” said Margie Molitor, Hot Springs County Hospital District CEO. “We pride ourselves in offering cutting edge technology for our patients, and this affords us the opportunity to continue making Hot Springs County a leader in health care in the Big Horn Basin. The new state of the art C-arm supports our growing pain management and orthopedic surgery service lines. With this grant we will be able to continue providing high-quality healthcare experiences for our patients.”

Walter Panzirer, a Trustee for the Helmsley Charitable Trust, said the initiative represents the organization’s latest multi-site initiative to improve the quality of healthcare available to rural residents in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska and Wyoming.

“Our goal has always been to improve access to exceptional medical treatment for those who live in rural America,” said Panzirer. “To that end, rural hospitals need to remain viable and have the latest equipment to ensure their patients can receive essential, quality healthcare services locally. This initiative is just one of many that strives to improve healthcare outcomes throughout the Upper Midwest.”

Panzirer said critical access hospitals in the seven-state region are hampered by outdated equipment. Over the last four years, the Helmsley Charitable Trust’s Rural Healthcare Program has awarded more than $30 million in grants to 82 hospitals in the Upper Midwest to purchase state-of-the-art computer tomography (CT) scanners.

The Helmsley Charitable Trust’s latest initiative addresses out-of-date x-ray technology that underserves patients and jeopardizes the health of physicians and x-ray technicians, according to Panzirer.

The $14.2 million in grants will allow replacement of a total of 87 pieces of equipment, including: 32 fixed x-ray devices with an average age of 16 years; 47 portable x-ray devices with an average age of 28 years; three fixed fluoroscopy devices averaging nine years; and five portable C-arms with an average age of 16 years.

“With one particular grant to a rural North Dakota hospital, the trust is replacing an x-ray device that has been in service since 1967,” Panzirer said. “Technology has advanced so much, even over the last decade, that these grants, allowing for the purchase of advanced x-ray devices, will provide incredible benefits for medical workers and their patients for the foreseeable future.”