Culver Town Council members considered making a donation to the St. Joseph Regional Medical Center EMS Fundraiser when they met last Tuesday.
EMS Director Kathy Hart explained that there are a few pieces of equipment that the hospital is interested in purchasing.
She said nothing is finalized but they’ve discussed getting laptops for the rigs as well as an automatic chest compression device. Manual chest compressions cannot be done on the move so the machine would allow patients to be transported while the procedure is being performed and would get patients to get to the hospital faster.
They’re also interested in purchasing a program that would assist with storing and sharing patient information.
Hart said, “We could get feedback on the patient and then if we have that same patient again, we would be able to have all of their drugs, their history and their allergies and then we could send everything we have to the hospital and it would just make everything go faster.”
President Ginny Bess Munroe said she asked organization officials if they would be willing to set up a contract to guarantee that Culver will receive access to some of the equipment if they provide a donation. She was told that they would be willing to do that.
Council members considered how much to contribute and decided on $1,500. They then discussed where the funds would come from and the possibility of splitting the donation between the River Boat Fund and the EMS budget was brought up.
However, Council member Sally Riccardi made a motion to draw up a contract and take the full donation amount from the River Boat Fund. Council member Joel Samuelson noted that he liked the idea of getting $750 from the EMS budget and $750 from the River Boat Fund.
Riccardi explained the reason she thought it would be more beneficial to take it all out of the River Boat Fund is because Union Township provides funds for a portion of the EMS budget. She said she thought that township officials would be more willing to make a donation on their own behalf if their money wasn’t already going toward a contribution.
Samuelson said that was a fair point and seconded the motion made by Riccardi. The vote then passed with unanimous council approval.
