A Letter from the Daly Hospital Foundation: Donor support needed now more than ever

A Letter from the Daly Hospital Foundation: Donor support needed now more than ever

On behalf of the Daly Hospital Foundation Board of Directors, we are thinking of you and our generous supporters during this difficult time and sending best wishes for your health and well-being. As can be expected, the Daly Hospital Foundation’s philanthropic priorities have shifted in the last few weeks. We are aggressively responding to the greatest needs at Marcus Daly Memorial Hospital and seeking your support on several initiatives.

$300 Challenge

Our Caregiver Relief Fund helps compensate for the economic blindside experienced by all healthcare facilities during this COVID-19 outbreak. We promise that 100% of your gift to the Daly Hospital Foundation at this time will directly support Marcus Daly Memorial Hospital and improve our ability to weather this storm. We’re grateful the CARES Act encourages charitable giving and allows for an additional $300 per individual above-the-line charitable income tax deduction. We hope you take advantage of the tax incentive and our extra recognition of those who give $300 or more during the next 30 days. Of course, any amount offered to this Caregiver Relief Fund will be gratefully accepted and recognized as a significant gift of charity during this difficult time.

We also want to recognize and help you be aware of other critical support received since the outbreak:

• With Marcus Daly Memorial Hospital’s emergency preparedness plan in place, community donations of personal protective equipment, homemade masks, meals for our frontline staff, and supplies have been very commendable and timely.
• We’re very grateful for the quick turnaround on a $50,000 grant from the Helmsley Charitable Trust to purchase (4) mechanical chest compression devices that will be stationed in Marcus Daly Memorial Hospital’s emergency department, ICU, surgery center and on an ambulance. Not only does this equipment help frontline healthcare workers save lives during cardiac arrest, but current research is indicating that as many as 1 in 5 COVID-19 patients are experiencing heart failure and death, even without showing signs of respiratory distress.
• Thanks to private, earmarked donations and support from our county officials, the Marcus Daly Laboratory will acquire a new instrumentation system capable of doing in-house testing for the FLU, RSV, STD and other viruses, including COVID-19 on a PCR platform with rapid turnaround.
• Funded entirely by donations from a generous Marcus Daly Memorial Hospital provider and matched by our 159 employee donors, an operating room in the Marcus Daly Surgery Center has been quickly upgraded for negative pressure providing safety for all when a patient needing emergency surgery might also have a communicable virus.
• In addition, our Marcus Daly Memorial Hospital Employee Donors thankfully had the foresight to purchase another portable ventilator last year. They are currently voting on how to spend the rest of their $23,000 donated during the last six months through payroll deductions.
• Memorial donations that support the Marcus Daly Hospice Center have been steadily increasing and we recently disbursed almost $10,000 directly to hospice to support patients who are unable to pay for services and supplies.

Gifts are always accepted online by visiting our Give Today page, or can be mailed to the Daly Hospital Foundation at 1200 Westwood Drive. I am happy to visit with any donor or grateful patient who would like to support the hospital during this extremely critical time. A pandemic is no time to weaken the ability of our healthcare system and especially our rural, independent hospital from ably serving residents and guests of the Bitterroot Valley. You can follow Marcus Daly Memorial Hospital’s progress on dealing with the ramifications of this current pandemic by visiting our dedicated COVID-19 Community Resources page, or by following Marcus Daly Memorial Hospital and the Daly Hospital Foundation on Facebook.

Again, wishing health and peace to all as we take small steps toward recovery and establishing a new normal in our community and healthcare system.

With much respect and admiration,

Stacie Duce

Director of Philanthropy
(406) 375-4674
stacie.duce@mdmh.org

Select the Fund From the List Below for Your Donation

Donations help Marcus Daly Memorial Hospital provide outstanding health and wellness care to residents and guests of the Bitterroot Valley. Our new Caregiver Relief Fund will help the organization recover from the economic blindside of the COVID-19 crisis so we can rebound and continue to provide quality care.