Houston, MO— The USDA Rural Development Community Facilities Program has awarded Texas County Memorial Hospital with a $46,700 grant to assist with the purchase of nine new bedside cardiac monitors for the emergency department. The total project cost is estimated to be $85,000. Approximately $38,500 of the remaining project costs will be funded through a portion of the hospital’s previously budgeted 2021 capital dollars.
“We are very thankful to the USDA Rural Development Community Facilities Program for awarding this grant to the hospital,” Mandy Pender, TCMH emergency department director, said. “The grant dollars came at a crucial time for the emergency department.”
“We went from being able to monitor five patients with continuous cardiac and vital signs to fourteen,” Pender said. “When COVID was hitting our community hard, we struggled to get continuous monitoring to all of our patients who needed it.”
Pender mentioned that the emergency department frequently borrowed equipment from other departments to help meet their patient care needs.
“It has been such a relief to the emergency department staff to have the new monitors here and ready for patients when we need them,” Pender said. “We can now place a high acuity patient in any of the fourteen rooms set up with the equipment.”
Texas County Memorial Hospital’s emergency department treats approximately 12,000 patients annually. The hospital, clinics, and the services they provide, are a vital resource to the 30,000 residents who reside within the hospital’s immediate service area.
