A $500,000 donation from Baxter Regional Medical Center’s Auxiliary higlighted the kickoff of a million dollar campaign to remodel the local medical facility’s acute inpatient rehabilitation unit. The announcement came Wednesday and with other pledges to be announced later brings the total dollars committed to the project to $800,000.
Ron Peterson, Baxter Regional Medical Center’s President and Chief Executive Officer, told the crowd filling the rehabilitation unit the average patient stay in that area of the hospital is 16 days. The average stay elsewhere in the hospital is three days.
The rehab unit provides individualized and flexible treatment programs for patients who have been disabled by injury or illness. Treatment in the unit addresses physical or medical problems, difficulties with activities of daily living and unique problems related to feeding, communicating, concentration and self-care.
The acute inpatient rehabilitation unit opened over 20 years ago and has not had an upgrade since a remodel in 1999.
Among those who have benefitted from the services provided through the rehab unit is Jeff Quick of Mountain Home who is serving as the campaign champion. Quick’s comments to the crowd drew the loudest and most sustained applause after he spoke about the care he received following his life threatening illness just over a year ago.
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Quick’s comments at the campaign event took place just a few feet outside the door of the room where he spent two weeks in the unit just over a year ago. He says it was being home that made all the difference in his recovery.
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Quick says he was not aware of the rehab unit until his illness.
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Quick represents approximately 400 patients who are treated in that area of the hospital annually.
While the donation from BRMC’s Auxiliary and other pledges are significant milestones in the campaign, hospital officials say other naming opportunities are available. They include $50,000 for the dining and recreation area, $20,000 for the extended stay apartment, a new addition to the unit, and 12 of the 22 patient rooms at $15,000 each. These levels may be pledged over a five-year period.
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