From Donor Dollars to Medical Equipment

The founding and ongoing purpose of the Sault Area Hospital Foundation is to raise funds for the hospital. Although the government provides the basics in healthcare, these basics do not always cover the cost of all of our new medical equipment needs. New equipment needs and upgrades or simply replacement equipment needs have always been shared with the community.

To accomplish this, the Foundation seeks the community’s support through donations from patients, their families and friends, businesses, service clubs and other organizations.

The Capital Planning Process

The process of determining the amount of funds that will be allocated within a fiscal year (April 1st to March 31st) and the lists of equipment items and projects that will be purchased is called the Capital Planning Process.

The following is a general overview of how the process works - in essence, how donor dollars become medical equipment for patient care.

Funding Allocation

Both the Hospital and Foundation Board of Directors establish the total amount of funds that each can allocate for the fiscal year’s equipment purchases and renovation/building projects.

The Boards then determine how their allocated funding will be applied to each of three different equipment lists: the capital equipment list, the minor equipment list and the “bed & breakfast” list.

Equipment Needs

Each of the hospital’s Department and Program Managers consult with their staff to identify and prioritize their equipment needs for the following year and then submit them to the Capital Review Committee.

The Capital Review Process

The Capital Review Process involves a review of all requests from each of the departments and ranking them from a highest to lowest need according to hospital-wide priorities. From this process comes the three equipment lists that are developed by committees comprised of physicians, nurse managers, departmental managers and other key stakeholders.

The Capital Equipment List

Items and projects that have a value of more than $2,500 are on the Capital Equipment List (also referred to as the Major Equipment List) and are approved and ranked by the Capital Review Committee. Items common to many hospital departments or functions such as stretchers, hospital beds, medication pumps, blood pressure monitors, etc. (Bed & Breakfast) are also considered.

The Minor Equipment List

Items that have a value of less than $2,500 are on the Minor Equipment List and are approved and ranked by the Minor Equipment Review Committee. Included is medical and non-medical equipment or small projects.

Important Considerations

During this Capital Planning Process, there are a number of critical and strategic criteria that are applied by each of these committees when determining hospital priorities:

-  degrees to which quality of care or operations will be improved

-  services to our patients will be improved

-  risk for patients will be reduced

-  potential to serve the largest customer base

-  how the request is linked to Hospital’s Strategic Plan & Corporate Goals

-  urgency of need

-  patient and staff health and safety risks

-  condition of the existing equipment

Unfortunately, the total number of requests received in a fiscal year always greatly exceeds the available funds therefore; virtually every department and program will have some requests that are not purchased.

Conclusion

The Sault Area Hospital Foundation’s Board of Directors committed more than $788,000 for the 2003-2004 fiscal year towards the purchase of specific items from the Capital Equipment List.

As a donor, you can feel confident in knowing that the hospital’s Capital Planning Process demonstrates an effective management of resources with clear lines of responsibility and accountability for the management of capital assets.

You can also feel proud in knowing that through the generosity of donors like you our Hospital can acquire the medical equipment needed to save and improve the lives of its patients.

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