The bright sun and hot temperatures couldn’t keep players away from Girard Medical Center Foundation’s golf tournament this year. Thirty-five three-man teams turned up for the 8th annual event on July 17th making this the foundation’s busiest tournament yet.
Proceeds from this year’s tournament are helping fund the hospital’s Picture Archival Communication System (PACS), which works with the existing radiology equipment to turn x-ray films digital speeding up the process of treating patients who require x-ray technology. Foundation Director, Melanie Cumoletti commented on the benefit of this new technology, “Ultimately, the goal is to reduce the time it takes to treat patients and get those patients home to their families sooner. We want to ensure that the hospital has the necessary tools to treat patients quickly and efficiently.”
This year’s tournament came with added good news from a local donor. In an afternoon announcement, The Goppert Foundation gifted $50,000 to the hospital foundation towards their PACS system. Blaine Markley of Forbes Law Group, representing the Goppert Foundation that day, thanked the hospital for their commitment to improving the delivery of health care to Crawford County.
“The Goppert Foundation is proud to support to the Hospital’s efforts to implement more effective methods of delivering care,” Markley said. The PACS system should improve the quality of the health care provided to patients of the Hospital.”
The foundation has been working since September of last year to raise the funds for PACS. To date, they have raised approximately $185,000 of the $298,600 needed to fund the equipment. They have tax credits to distribute to those who make a contribution towards PACS until December of this year.
“This year’s tournament was a great success thanks to all of the sponsors who came forward and all of the players who made the game so much fun” said Cumoletti. “With the continued help of generous donors, just like those who supported this tournament, we are looking forward to being able to fully fund PACS by the end of this year.”
The foundation has plans to keep the tournament running again next year, same time, same place.
Those interested in finding out more about the tax credits, made available to the foundation by the Kansas Department of Commerce, can contact the foundation at 620-724-5192.
