On the Town: Campaign launched for new emergency room at Providence St. Joseph
If you, a family member or a friend utilized the emergency services of Providence Saint Joseph Medical Center this past year, you joined ranks with more than 68,000 others who also relied on the medical staff members who work in the 38-year-old emergency room to save lives on a daily basis.
“We are in need of a new ER facility to practice the medicine we are capable of providing,” Dr. Angelique Campen told a small group of community leaders and representatives from local government, nonprofit organizations, schools and businesses as well as Realtors during a reception held at Hotel Amarano this past Thursday evening.
“Our ER, which, for many people, serves as the front door of our hospital, needs to be expanded and updated to match the rest of our facility,” Campen said.
“We are also in need of an urgent-care facility located right on campus to unburden our emergency care, and be able to quickly move patients with serious medical issues right into the ER,” she added.
Taking Campen’s words to heart, a campaign has been established to raise $70 million to build a new emergency-services facility that will include an on-site urgent-care facility to improve triage to reduce wait times, double the amount of treatment rooms that will include isolation rooms, provide faster diagnostic information to doctors and establish state-of-the-art communications technologies.
The event on Thursday was the first of a series of mixers and public-awareness meetings that, throughout this year, will engage both community leaders and the public to learn about the planned upgrades and get the fundraising campaign under way.
Having established a fundraising committee through the medical center’s foundation, the five-year project will be headed by Michael Mayne, who serves as the senior development officer and philanthropic gifts adviser for Providence St. Joseph, and the committee co-chairs, former Burbank Mayor Michael Hastings and his wife, Kathy, and former Burbank Police Commission member Nat Rubinfeld and his wife, Alma.
Addressing the assemblage, Hastings said the committee, made up of Karen Volpei, Barry Gussow, Chris Rizzotti, Zizette Mullins and Ken and Leslie Smith, has set a goal of raising $5 million within the Burbank and Toluca Lake communities.
“I would like to see every resident give something, even if it is just a few dollars to make this happen,” Hastings said. “We need to grow our hospital’s emergency services facility to meet our population growth. We owe that to our community.”
Among those in attendance at the roll-out were the foundation’s executive director, Renée Bianco, and administrative secretary, Sarah Skolnik, as well as City Council members Jess Talamantes and Sharon Springer and City Atty. Amy Albano.
Others who were there in support of the fundraising effort included Linda Walmsley, Tom Whalen, Carole Kubasak, Pat and Dave Augustine and Dale Gorman.
The emergency services department at Providence St. Joseph Medical Center provides around-the-clock care.
Every physician is board-certified by the American Board of Emergency Medicine, and, as a designated paramedic base station, paramedics in the field are provided with instructions from the medical team so critical treatment protocols can begin before patients arrive at the hospital.
To learn more about the fundraising campaign, the work of the foundation and committee, how you can become involved and donate or to take a tour of the current emergency facilities and see what is planned, call (818) 847-4673.
DAVID LAURELL may be reached by email at dlaurell@aol.com or (818) 563-1007.
