Current Priorities
Echocardiography machine
According to the Institut national de santé publique du Québec (INSPQ), heart problems are the leading cause of visits to healthcare facilities. Requests for echocardiography exams come from hospitalized patients awaiting discharge as well as outpatients, all prioritized based on the urgency of their request.
The exam is conducted using a high-definition ultrasound machine, operated by a medical electrophysiology technologist, who captures images and video sequences. It allows the observation of heart function, valves, and pericardium (the lining around the heart), hypertension, heart murmurs, and post-heart attack follow-up. The procedure is non-invasive, quick, and painless.
An Added Value
Acquiring a 4th echocardiography machine will allow approximately 2,300 additional exams to be performed annually. It will serve hospitalized patients as well as the 3,215 outpatients on the waiting list at Saint-Jérôme Hospital, significantly reducing the wait time for an appointment by several months.
The addition of this equipment will also coincide with the imminent arrival of two new cardiologists. Coordination of the room layout project is underway to ensure that the ultrasound machine is integrated among all services and ready for use quickly. This request was previously authorized by the Ministry of Health and Social Services on October 4, 2022. The cost of this machine is $200,000.
How are the funds allocated?
Each year, at its Annual General Meeting – AGM, the Foundation allocates a sum of money to be invested in numerous projects. Where do applications come from? Who chooses the projects to be developed? How does the Foundation build its campaigns? Here is a diagram that illustrates the process:
