The Timmins and District Hospital Foundation has received an unexpected gift.
Thanks to an $8,305 donation from the Porcupine Kinsmen Club, the hospital now has a second AccuVein unit.
The hand-held unit has a red light that RN Tara Miller said highlights the veins.
"We use it primarily for infants and small children because they don’t have veins that pop up nicely for us and it avoids us having to pick them multiple times to actually get a vein since we can’t sometimes feel them or visualize them," she said.
"We find it particularly helpful with the pediatric population, but we do use it in adults who have bad veins as well."
The nursery unit has had one for a couple of years.
Having the new unit in the emergency department will be beneficial, she said.
“But when someone’s really critically ill and you have to get fluids into them quickly, it became sort of problematic of us to have to phone somebody to run upstairs to bring it down and if they were using it then we didn’t have access to it," she said.
Porcupine Kinsmen director John Curley saw the device in Sudbury and approached the club to see if they would support buying it for the Timmins hospital.
“It’s something that everybody in the City of Timmins might use at some point, including our club members, so that was an easy sell to them. And it’s more efficient for the staff to be able to find the veins a lot quicker, and a lot less discomfort for the patients that are here,” he said.
TADH manager of donor relations Barb McCormick said the foundation really appreciates the community partnerships.
While the provincial government provides cash for hospital operatons, it doesn't fund equipment.
“These partnerships with all our community partners are extremely important to be able to improve the quality of care that we can provide the communities,” she said.
