A much hoped for and much anticipated grant came through for the Cook County North Shore Hospital, said Hospital/Care Center Director Kimber Wraalstad who announced that the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust’s Rural Healthcare Program had awarded the radiology department a $400,000 grant toward the replacement of a computed tomography (CT) scanner.
A CT scanner combines many X-ray images taken from many angles to produce cross sectional images of specific areas inside the body.
“The grant will allow for the purchase of a new Siemens 64-slice CT scanner to place in the remodeled radiology area,” said Wraalstad, who thanked Vera Schumann and Caroline Hanford for their efforts in researching and writing the grant.
“The grant provided by the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust will enable Cook County North Shore Hospital to improve our imaging services to the residents and visitors of Cook County,” Wraalstad said, “Not only will the 64-slice CT provide dose-appropriate imaging, but the increased speed of the imagining process will reduce the patient breath hold and undoubtedly reduce the number of re-scans performed due to patient movement. The increased weight capacity of the new equipment will also accommodate those patients we would need to turn away with our current CT scanner.
“We are grateful to the Helmsley Charitable Trust for their support enabling us to enhance the care provided to our patients and community,” said Wraalstad.
The Helmsley Charitable Trust’s Rural Healthcare program supports initiatives that connect patients with healthcare services via technology and provide essential treatment and diagnostic equipment to rural areas. It also provides grants for state-of-the-art training for rural health care workers in the upper Midwest.
Cook County North Shore Hospital was one of 37 grant recipients across the region to receive a grant to purchase a CT scanner.
The Rural Healthcare Program of the Helmsley Charitable Trust is granting nearly $14 million over the next six months to support the purchase of new 32-slice or higher CT scanners at critical care access hospitals in the seven-state region.
Human resources director
Four people have applied for the human resources director position, said Wraalstad, and three screening interviews already conducted.
“The next step will be formal telephone interviews with Marla Halverson, St. Luke’s Human Resource Director,” said Wraalstad.
Following that, a decision will be made whom to interview in Grand Marais. Administrative staff, two department managers and Shelly Starkey will perform those interviews. Selected individuals will then proceed to Duluth and will be interviewed by Halverson and members of her staff.
The person picked will be an employee of St. Luke’s but will live and work in Cook County.
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