Southwestern Vermont Health Care Auxiliary Gives Equipment for Care of Diabetes Patients

BENNINGTON, VT—March 5, 2019—Diabetes patients at Southwestern Vermont Medical Center (SVMC), part of Southwestern Vermont Health Care (SVHC), and its practices will soon benefit from an upgrade to the system used to monitor their blood glucose. The new technology, the Hemocue point-of-care testing glucose testing system, costs $20,000. Funds were generously donated by the SVHC Auxiliary.

“The average age of our current analyzer is seven years, and at that point, they begin to wear out,” said Laurene Grande, Southwestern Vermont Medical Center’s director of the Intensive Care Unit and Medical-Surgical Nursing. “This gift from the Auxiliary will allow us to replace the entire fleet. Patients will benefit from this accurate and efficient technology.”

The upgrade takes advantage of increased functionality that has been added to the devices on the market. For instance, the new machines interface directly with the electronic medical record system, which eliminates the need for entering data manually. Being automatically linked to the patient’s record will save nurses time and further decrease opportunities for errors to occur.

In addition, the gift allows SVMC to use the same model of machine throughout the organization, both in practices and in the inpatient setting. Doing so simplifies training and maintenance of the devices and increases patient safety.

“We are happy to provide the tools nurses need to take care of patients,” said Lila Cestone, president of the Auxiliary. “We hope patients will benefit from having the latest equipment available and, as a result, the care they receive is the best it can be.”

Over the past 20 years, the Southwestern Vermont Health Care (SVHC) Auxiliary has given more than $1 million to support services and equipment upgrades to SVHC. The Auxiliary manages the Corridor Gallery, vendor sales, and the Personal Emergency Response System. Each endeavor provides care, convenience, and comfort to patients and staff. For information about joining the SVHC Auxiliary, visit svhealthcare.org/auxiliary or call 802-440-4024.

About SVHC:
Southwestern Vermont Health Care (SVHC) is a comprehensive, preeminent, health care system providing exceptional, convenient, and affordable care to the communities of Bennington and Windham Counties of Vermont, eastern Rensselaer and Washington Counties of New York, and northern Berkshire County in Massachusetts. SVHC includes Southwestern Vermont Medical Center (SVMC), Southwestern Vermont Regional Cancer Center, the Centers for Living and Rehabilitation, and the SVHC Foundation. SVMC includes 25 primary and specialty care practices. For more information, visit svhealthcare.org.

Southwestern Vermont Health Care complies with applicable Federal civil rights laws and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability, or sex. Language assistance services, free of charge, are available at 1-800-367-9559.