GRMC receives $500,000 in donations to fund equipment purchases

Graham Regional Medical Center received $537,475 in donations from the Graham Benevolent Foundation and Bruce and Alice Anne Street which will allow for the purchases of a new ambulance, nurse call system and C-Arm machine.

The need for a new ambulance was a discussion point during the Aug. 20 hospital board meeting. Board member Suzy Graham approached her family members and the Graham Benevolent Fund agreed to pay for the purchase the ambulance which GRMC CEO Shane Kernell said had been an issue.

“Funding has been the challenge, I received a phone call last week from Suzy informing us that the Graham Benevolent Fund has come forward to be a funder of this,” Kernell said. “Which we greatly appreciate, this is a need that benefits the entire community of Graham because this ambulance could show up at anyone of our houses.”

The CEO added the hospital had explored other options for replacing or remounting their oldest ambulance, but were unsuccessful.

“We have applied twice now for a capital improvement grant from the State of Texas, that’s $75,000 from them and we match $25,000, that’s how we did the remount on the newest ambulance that we have,” Kernell said. “Unfortunately, the oldest ambulance we have is not remountable, it has been remounted I think three times already. It is beyond another remount and the new rules and regulations. It’s going require a new chassis and a new box.”

He added that he had EMS Director Bobby Hadderton obtain quotes for a new ambulance and he returned with two options. One for a regular 14-foot box, which is currently the same size as all current ambulances, or a shortened 12-foot, four-inch box. The 14-foot box had a quote of $214,511 and the 12-foot, four-inch box had a quote of $205,336.

“Bobby’s recommendation was stick with what you have for consistency purposes, so when a medic steps into anyone of those three ambulances the stuff is in the same place in any of them,” Kernell said. “If you go with the little bit shorter box, you’ll have to move stuff around a little bit and the difference in price being $10,000 I thought it made sense to me.”

The board voted to approve the purchase of the 14-foot ambulance which will come with a 2019 or 2020 Dodge chassis and be built and mounted by Frazier Built, of Houston. The expected arrival date of the new ambulance is April of 2020.

Kernell also gave an update on the 2014 ambulance which is currently in the shop. The CEO said last week, the number two ambulance typically used for transfers has experienced motor problems and a whole rebuilt motor had to be installed for a cost of $12,000. He said the mechanic has discovered the turbocharger is what caused the motor problems and will cost an additional $5,000.While the ambulance is out of commission, they are using a loaner ambulance from Possum Kingdom Lake.

“Our ’14 (ambulance) should get out of the shop this week with a new motor, new turbo and it will be back in operation with our ’17,” Kernell said. “It’s our oldest one (being replaced) and I forget its’ model, it’s a ’07 or ’08, it’s like 10-years-old and in ambulance years, it’s like dog years, so it’s like a 100-years-old, but it serves mainly as our backup.”

For the rest of the story, see the Saturday, Aug. 31 edition of The Graham Leader.