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Highlands Regional Medical Center, as a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit healthcare organiztion, provides service to all regardless of their income or ability to pay. In 2007 Highlands provided $2,549,597 in charity care to a total of 7,536 inidviduals and another $1,106,829 in overall community benefit programs, educaion, and services. Now, Highlands needs support from our communities to help fund the new Emergency Department. Just as the Emergency Department is being built to meet the healthcare needs of our communities, the hospital needs help in raising the funds needed to provide this new dimension in state-of-the-art emergency care. The cost of the ED project is over $6 million and only part of the funding has been secured by the Medical Center. Highlands Foundation has accepted the cahallenge to raise $1.75 million to aid in the completion of the project. The Emergency Department is not really for the hospital; it is for the people in Floyd, Johnson, Martin, and Magoffin counties who look to Highlands for help in times of trouble. Together we can bring hope to our community. |
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Unforturnately, not all emergencies have good outcomes. When patients do not get to the ED in time or when their injuries are too severe, the worst can occur. When doctors and nuses in the ED and staff from other departments such as respiratory, radiology, laboratory, and surgery respond to a "code blue" in the ED, do everything possible with the resources they have and still are unable to save the patient, it is heart-breaking. An ED staff is trained to deal with the horrors of traumatic automobile accidents, gunshot wounds, ATV accidents involving children and adults, and the grief that families suffer when these events occur. At the same time, doctors and nurses are very "human" and they too grieve for the families of patients who "didn't make it."
An Emergency Department staffed by skilled doctors and nurses using the most technologically advanced equipment available can do incredible things to save lives. It is that kind of state-of-the-art emergency facility Highlands is working to make a reality. It will be an emergency facility like no other east of Lexington and, with its opening, will bring a higher, more sophisticated level of emergency care to the people of eastern Kentucky.
Highlands is fortunate to have outstanding working relationships with tertiary care hospitals in Lexington, Huntington, Louisville, and the heart center in Ashland, and to be able to use their services when needed. However, when a patient suffers a life-threatening illness or injury, it is critical that they be taken to the closest emergency facility immediately. If the patient is having a heart attack or bleeding uncontrollably, there is not always time to make a 60- to 100-mile trip to seek care. From the time a heart attack or stroke occurs, the "Golden Hour," or the first hour that passes after the actual event, is a critical time. During that time if appropriate interventions are taken to stabilize the patient and administer clot-dissolving drugs such as TPA or TNK, the patient will have improved odds, not only for survival, but for a favorable outcome. This is only one reason why it is so important that people in Floyd, Johnson, Martin, and Magoffin counties get involved in making this new state-of-the-art Emergency Department a reality.
Just as you hope that you or a member of your family will never be in a life-threatening situation, you also hope the very best in emergency care will be available should the need occur. A flood of emotions are sparked when we hear the words "it's an emergency." For instance, it is the middle of the night and the telephone rings; before you pick up to answer - you hope your family is all right and no one is hurt or seriously ill. It is snowing and the roads are getting icy and a member of your family is late getting home - you hope they haven't been involved in an accident. You are driving down a busy highway and come upon an accident where victims are still lying on the pavement and ambulances with sirens blaring are beginning to arrive. Even if you have no idea who the people are - you hope they will be all right. You are at a hometown football game and a young player receives a blow that leaves him unconscious and unresponsive - no matter what team he was playing for - you hope he will be all right. |
