Katahdin Valley Health Center gives $25,000 for campaign

  HOULTON, Maine — The Health Services Foundation, in support of their GE Senographe Full-field Digital Mammography equipment Campaign for Houlton Regional Hospital, recently received a $25,000 grant from the Katahdin Valley Health Center.
    “KVHC, its board and staff are pleased that we could help not only by providing the highest quality of care to the benefit of our patients, but also to Health Services Foundation and Houlton Regional Hospital whose contributions to KVHC over the years, especially the early ones, made the difference between success and failure,” said Durward L Humphrey, chief executive officer for KVHC. “As a community driven organization we are pleased that we are able to financially do what we all know [should be done]. It is all about giving back.”
The new digital mammography equipment will assist in patient care by reducing patient exam time, allowing medical institutions to examine more patients who need mammograms. In addition, the GE technology helps decrease patient callbacks, and offers a comprehensive view of the entire breast area. The GE Senographe digital mammography system displays high quality patient images in seconds, providing technologists with quick verification of correct patient positioning. Digital mammography offers practical advantages over film screen mammography by improving contrast, and the use of advanced computer and electronic technologies to manipulate the image in order to better “see” certain breast tumors that are currently difficult to visualize on film screen mammography systems.
“Given the rural nature of the northern Maine communities that Houlton Regional Hospital serves, the Foundation is extremely sensitive to requests presented to us by the hospital, as we know they cannot always meet the pressing health care issues/equipment needs they are confronted with almost daily.  The Foundation assists with their requests, within our financial guidelines, as we understand the difficulties the fast changing world of healthcare presents. As an FQHC (Federally Qualified Health Center), Katahdin Valley Health Center absolutely understands that funding of this project will have enormous far-reaching effects in the field of breast cancer screenings and give Houlton Regional the necessary tools for early detection of this very serious disease at the local level. This funding from Katahdin Valley Health Center is another major step toward reaching the Digital Mammography Campaign goal for Houlton Regional, and we are grateful for their generosity and being a part of this very important initiative,” said Elizabeth Dulin, Foundation executive director.
Houlton Regional consistently scores at or above other hospitals in Maine in surveys regarding patient care. The most recent recognition was the 2011 VHA Leadership Award for Clinical Excellence.  VHA Inc, is a national health care network, that serves more than 1,350 not-for-profit hospitals and more than 30,000 non-acute health care providers nationwide. Houlton Regional was one of only 28 VHA member hospitals to receive this award.
“With the Foundation efforts and the continued excellence of care Houlton Regional provides we are pleased to be able to continue those high standards of the hospital in the area of Digital Mammography services,” Dulin said.
Anyone wishing to know more about this project or overall Health Services Foundation information may do so by calling 207-521-2147 or visiting the website at www.healthservicesfoundation.org.