Helmsley Charitable Trust Grants $238,556.00 to Help Mountrail County Medical Center Purchase State-of-the-Art Ultrasound Equipment

7 Mar 2025 News ,

Stanley, ND — The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust has granted $238,556.00 to Mountrail County Medical Center to purchase a Mindray TE X Ultrasound System for the ER and a GE Logiq E10s for the Radiology Department as part of a $27.4 million ultrasound initiative in North Dakota.

The initiative includes more than $21.8 million to help 69 North Dakota hospitals and health centers purchase ultrasound imaging devices and nearly $5.7 million to boost sonography and point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) training opportunities across the state.

“The Helmsley Foundation has provided the ability for our radiology department to bring more advanced ultrasound services to Mountrail County and our neighboring communities”, explains Brenna Williams, Radiology Manager for MCMC.  “Our new machine will provide higher quality echocardiograms and more detailed imaging in pre-natal and breast exams along with general, vascular, and pediatric ultrasonography.  The generosity of the Helmsley Foundation will play a key role in achieving superior diagnostic imaging and setting the standard for exceptional rural health care.  Ultrasound uses high-frequency sound waves to produce images of structures inside the body. This safe, cost-effective tool supports other clinical information to help providers make timely diagnoses and provide appropriate treatment.”

Walter Panzirer, a Trustee of the Helmsley Charitable Trust, said the grants will help improve access to top-notch medical treatment for North Dakotans, whether they live in Fargo, Bismarck, or Grand Forks, or a smaller rural community such as Bottineau, Rugby, or Hettinger.

“These grants will help ensure that hospitals and health centers across North Dakota have the latest in state-of-the-art ultrasound equipment and training,” Panzirer said. “Facilities need to stay current with rapidly advancing technology so they can continue to provide the very best healthcare close to home.”

The majority (134) of the devices purchased through the grants are POCUS machines, which are used by providers at the bed or tableside for immediate assessment of a patient to quickly determine a course of action. The grants will also provide 57 general ultrasound systems and 24 cardiovascular ultrasound systems, which aid in imaging of the heart.

“The Helmsley grant has allowed us the ability to update our point of care ultrasound system to provide further advanced technology to the Mountrail County Medical Center bedside,” states Brittany Haugtvedt, MCMC’s ER DON.  “The new ultrasound system offers a full suite of innovative features and AI powered Smart Tools to help expedite clinical decision making.  We are very grateful to the Helmsley Foundation for allowing us to have the best-in-class imaging to help provide a higher standard of care in the rural health care setting.”

The initiative also includes nearly $1.9 million to North Dakota State University and nearly $3.8 million to High Quality Medical Education (HQMEDED) to expand sonographer expertise and provide comprehensive POCUS training to doctors, physician assistants, and nurse practitioners. Additionally, more than $64,000 will go to individual facilities to boost sonographer training.

The Helmsley Charitable Trust has committed a total of $72 million to fund ultrasound equipment and training initiatives for rural communities and underserved populations in Nevada, North Dakota, Minnesota, and Wyoming.

(Additional information including photos and b-roll video can be downloaded from https://helmsleytrust.box.com/s/prhpsbah1ldnd5cun4lcyehhw5474zo9)

 

About the Helmsley Charitable Trust

The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust aspires to improve lives by supporting exceptional efforts in the U.S. and around the world in health and select place-based initiatives. Since beginning active grantmaking in 2008, Helmsley has committed more than $4.5 billion for a wide range of charitable purposes. Helmsley’s Rural Healthcare Program funds innovative projects that use information technologies to connect rural patients to emergency medical care, bring the latest medical therapies to patients in remote areas, and provide state-of-the-art training for rural hospitals and EMS personnel. To date, this program has awarded more than $750 million to organizations and initiatives in the states of Hawaii, Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wyoming, and two U.S. Pacific territories, American Samoa and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. For more information, visit www.helmsleytrust.org.

ALC Donates To Health Foundation

6 Dec 2024 News , , ,
The new nursing home phase of construction at the Mountrail County Health Center received a generous donation of $500,000 from the American Lutheran Church in Stanley last week.
Roger Gjellstad, vice-president of the church council, said that the church has been blessed with oil revenue and they felt this was a great local, Christian project, that they wanted to support. The congregation voted to make the donation last year.
Gjellstad said that they are very excited to have this facility in the community. The community is also very blessed to have MCHC looking to the future of taking care of residents for years to come.
Work on the new nursing home phase of construction remains right on schedule with crews planning to take Christmas week off. Anderson Steel has been hard at work getting the steel set. Outer walls should start going up on December 16 with roofing beginning in the first full week of January. After that, it will be full speed ahead with work on the interior of the building.
The first phase of the construction is the new 36 bed nursing home, including ten basic care rooms, the same number of beds as the current nursing home. This Nursing Home phase is expected to take roughly two years and once completed will come up to where the current north wing is located.
On the hospital side, renovations will start with a new entrance near the existing sunroom at Mountrail Bethel Home (MBH). There will be a gift shop and a new waiting room. Construction down the current south wing of the nursing home will include adding an out-patient infusion suite, pharmacy suite and an MRI suite.
Purchasing will be moving from the basement to the upper level. The downstairs area will be renovated to accommodate a new specialty clinic that will allow the facility to bring in more specialists. It will also include a minor procedure room.
The ambulance bay by the emergency room will be extended to accommodate the larger sizes of the newer ambulances.
They will also be adding seven new apartments to Rosen Place. The assisted living facility currently has a waiting list of 31, showing the need for the new apartments. These will all be single apartments based on the footprint space available. These apartments will be located along the rest of the current south wing of the nursing home. The Rosen Place addition is the final part of construction.
Fundraising for the entire project continues. To date, the Mountrail County Health Foundation has $36 million of the estimated $47 million cost of the project.
“To say the Foundation is grateful for this amazing donation from the American Lutheran Church is an understatement. We celebrated National Rural Health Day two weeks ago. With 61 million people calling a rural community their home, rural medical facilities are the lifeline of America’s underserved, emphasizing the term “The POWER of Rural”. For if the Mountrail County Health Center was not in existence,  that would mean 36 Nursing Home residents, with 18 new admissions over the past year, 15 Rosen Place residents and 4 Basic Care residents would not have a home.  That would mean 345 Outpatients, 23 Swingbeds patients, 9,791 Clinic patients, 6,210 lab visits, 3,641 Radiology visits, 4,445 Physical Therapy patients and 3,005 ER Visits would have to find other facilities outside of Mountrail County to go to. That also would mean 141 employees would have to find another facility to work at.
The Mountrail County Medical Center and the Mountrail Bethel Home Boards approved, over the last year, to move forward with a  $47 million dollar building project, including a new nursing Home.  The County has generously pledged towards the new nursing home. To ensure the future services of the nursing home to take care of the elderly in rural communities, the Mountrail County Health Foundation has set an aggressive goal of fundraising the remaining $11 million dollars. The community has always rallied around the Health Center on its previous projects. And now it’s time to focus on the Nursing Home and allow our residents a higher quality of life.”
To donate to the Partnering For the Future Campaign, please contact Steph Everett at 701-628-8603. For donation options, you can also visit the Health Foundation’s website at www.mountrailcountyhealthfoundation.org.

Bravera Bank Donates To Mountrail Bethel Home Project

8 Nov 2024 News , , , ,

We’re thrilled to share that Bravera Bank has made a five-year, $100,000 pledge towards the new nursing home portion of our building project!

Bravera Bank: A Longtime Supporter of MCHC and the Surrounding Community
Stanley branch Market President Heath Hetzel says that Bravera focuses on giving back and supporting their communities. The hospital and nursing home are a huge part of not just Stanley, but all surrounding communities.

When Bravera sees a need across their footprint, they want to support and be a part of meeting that need. Youth and healthcare make up a large part of where they want to allocate their giving, as hospitals and schools are two of the largest employers within communities.

Our own Steph Everett, Administrator of Mountrail Bethel Home and CEO of MCMC shared:

“Bravera Bank has been a longtime supporter of the building projects at the Mountrail County Health Center over the years. We are thankful for their ongoing leadership and support in improving our community, and are so grateful for their generosity and what a blessing they are to the new Nursing Home project.”

MCHC Building Project Timeline
The first phase of construction for the MCHC project is our new 36-bed nursing home (including ten basic care rooms), the same number of beds as the current nursing home. This Nursing Home phase is expected to take roughly two years and, once completed, will come up to where the current north wing is located.

On the hospital side, renovations will start with a new entrance near the existing sunroom at Mountrail Bethel Home (MBH). There will be a gift shop and a new waiting room. Construction down the current south wing of the nursing home will include adding an out-patient infusion suite, a pharmacy suite, and an MRI suite.

In addition, purchasing will be moving from the basement to the upper level. The downstairs area will be renovated to accommodate a new specialty clinic that will allow us to bring in more specialists and include a minor procedure room. The ambulance bay by the emergency room will be extended to accommodate the larger sizes of newer ambulances.

As the final part of construction, we will also be adding seven new single apartments to Rosen Place. The assisted living facility currently has a waiting list of 31, showing the need for the new apartments. These apartments will be located along the rest of the current south wing of the nursing home.

Thank you, Bravera Bank, for your generous donation!

If you or someone you know would like to contribute to the construction of these vital healthcare facilities, visit the Mountrail County Health Foundation website.

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