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Kickstart Your Heart with $20,000 Match Gift!

February 1, 2021 – For the first two weeks of February, the Georgian Bay General Hospital (GBGH) Foundation is raising funds for defibrillators and crash carts, inspired by a $20,000 match gift from Conrad and Donna Huber.  The ‘Kickstart Your Heart’ campaign has a goal to raise a total of $50,000 to purchase two crash carts equipped with defibrillators for GBGH.

Crash carts allow the care teams to deliver critical medication and transport life-saving equipment to the site of a medical emergency quickly and efficiently within the hospital.  After many years of use and replacements, the crash carts across the organization are no longer standardized, which is important when care team members from across the organization could be called to an emergency. By having the same carts throughout the hospital, it ensures all team members are trained on the same equipment which improves quality and safety. The defibrillators, which accompany the carts, are also at the end of life and must be replaced.

The goal of Kickstart Your Heart is to purchase two new carts with defibrillators, but 11 new carts and defibrillators are needed, at a cost of $25,000 each.

“Searching for an IV, suction catheter, defibrillator pads, airway equipment, or even gauze, really makes an already stressful environment even more stressful,” says Tyler Pilon, manager, ICU and Surgical Services, GBGH.  “These precious minutes truly make a difference. Through the years, I have seen many life-saving stories and knowing that you can trust the equipment to function the way it was intended, and have everything readily available, truly makes the job easier.”

The campaign was inspired by a generous match gift of $20,000 from Port Severn couple, Conrad and Donna Huber.  They share a great love story, so a campaign to celebrate love, hearts and community was the ideal way to encourage others to join them in supporting GBGH.

“We enjoy being together and doing things together,” share the Hubers. “We have been so fortunate in life and it makes us both happy to be able to give back to our community.  It is our gift to each other.”

Nine local businesses are also digging in to help raise funds for the campaign.  Arbour’s Flower Shoppe, Splash Floral & Event Design, Pier 21 Restaurant, World Famous Dock Lunch, Phil’s Casual Dining, Phil’s Pub & Eatery, Georgian Bakery, Saturday Afternoons and Café Kittyhawk have committed a portion of Valentine’s Day sales, or a portion of sales from a particular Valentine’s item, to support GBGH.

“This campaign is all about keeping hearts beating – in the hospital, with the purchase of critically important defibrillators, but also throughout the community,” shares Christine Baguley, philanthropy officer, GBGH Foundation.  “We are proud to recognize and elevate the businesses who continue to give back in the midst of their toughest times, and are excited to see the community come together to support them with love for Valentine’s Day.”

Those interested can get involved by joining the conversation on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, supporting our local business partners, sharing posts on social media, and making a donation here.

*Donations will be matched up to a total of $20,000.

An update from GBGH – January 2021

To say 2020 was an exceptionally challenging year for our hospital would be an understatement. The COVID-19 pandemic, and recent COVID outbreak at GBGH, has put incredible strain on our team of staff & credentialed staff, as well as our limited capital budget. A great deal of our time and resources in 2020 were dedicated to pandemic preparedness, response and recovery. The many challenges we faced served to make us a stronger team at GBGH and despite all the difficult times, there were some incredible things accomplished in our hospital over the past few months.

The Midland COVID-19 Assessment Centre continues to be a great partnership between GBGH, Waypoint Centre for Mental Health Care, CHIGAMIK Community Health Centre and the North Simcoe Family Health Team. More than 17,000 people have been swabbed since March 25, and in November, we began offering online appointment booking via the GBGH website in addition to telephone bookings.

One of the most meaningful and historic highlights in the past few months was the immunization of our hospital team. In January 2021, the majority of our staff and credentialed staff received the COVID-19 vaccine. Our goal at GBGH is to always provide safe, exceptional care, so having the vaccine available to us this quickly brings hope and a much-needed morale boost to our team.

In October, our Intensive Care Unit (ICU) was designated as a Level 3 Basic facility, which is the second highest designation an ICU can receive in Ontario with the exception of specialty units (i.e. Coronary Care). For a community hospital like GBGH to have this designation is a testament to our commitment of providing exceptional critical care. We are very proud of this accomplishment and what it means for our patients who can receive comprehensive critical care services in our community.

We also entered into a partnership with Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre (RVH) to offer echocardiograms at GBGH, and we anticipate, in the first year of the partnership, nearly 1,100 patients will be able to receive this service close to home. The service is now available to GBGH inpatients and patients from the community referred by a physician.

Through it all, on behalf of the entire GBGH team of staff and credentialed staff, we appreciate all the messages of support we have received from the community. Your kind words and positive thoughts inspire us every day. Thank you for your support, and we look forward to a brighter year ahead.

To send a message of support to the GBGH team, please click here.