Richmond Hospital Foundation has launched a call for donations to purchase critical life-saving medical equipment to treat coronavirus patients.
In response to the local community’s desire to help, Richmond Hospital Foundation set up the COVID-19 Response Fund on March 20 to purchase equipment to “create capacity” for Richmond Hospital, said Natalie Meixner, president and CEO of Richmond Hospital Foundation.
“We have had many people asking us how they can help, what is the best way to help? So the best way to help is to make a donation online, because the money will be used for equipment,” said Meixner.
“We worked with Richmond Hospital leadership to understand Richmond Hospital equipment needs during the pandemic. Right now, they have identified that they need a number of ventilators and oxygen concentrators,” she added.
COVID-19 targets the lungs and can cause complications such as pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome, which requires ventilators to deliver oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body.
Each ventilator costs roughly $75,000 to $80,000 and Meixner said Richmond Hospital needs four additional ones — although she wasn’t sure how many it already has.
She also assured that the company that supplies the ventilators for Richmond Hospital has confirmed it has sufficient quantities to fulfill the order, and the four units Richmond Hospital has ordered will be delivered in four to six weeks.
“They are keeping the supply chain moving for everything, and (ventilators) are a high priority for purchasing,” said Meixner.
“We expect equipment needs will be evolving in the weeks ahead and we will continue to work with Richmond Hospital to help however we can to support our medical teams.”
Meanwhile, many well-intentioned people have offered to drop by the hospital to donate face masks and hand sanitizers to support frontline health care workers, but Meixmer discourages that.
“When people are offering to bring in face masks or gloves, they actually are diverting (the health care team’s) time.
“We definitely don’t want them to come into the hospital or any facility. Richmond Hospital has sufficient masks, and we are assured that health care workers don’t require any gloves or any other things,” said Meixner, again stressing that the best way to help is by making a donation online.
“I would like to thank people in advance for really thinking about how they can help and then for making a donation to buy the equipment we need right now and that we’re going to need in the coming weeks.”
If you would like to make a donation to COVID-19 Response Fund, go online to https://www.richmondhospitalfoundation.com/why-give/covid-19-response-fund. And a tax-deductible receipt will also be issued to the donor.
For the latest information on COVID-19, click here.
