ER & Cardiac Care Campaign enters home stretch

Carrie Mitchell Lucy Muto Lewis "Babe" Rotella

With the goal line in sight, Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center is launching the final phase of its ER & Cardiac Care Campaign and has enlisted a trio of key community leaders to help bring the $5 million fundraising effort to a successful conclusion.

General Campaign Chairman Craig Avery announced that Carrie Mitchell, a retired Niagara Falls educator; Lucy Muto, vice president and branch manager of HSBC Bank’s Power City Office; and Lewis “Babe” Rotella, general manager of Rural/Metro Medical Services, will spearhead the campaign’s community division.

“The response to the vision stage of the campaign has just been overwhelming,” Avery said. “The excitement continues to build as the reality of construction makes this project tangible. We’re confident that area businesses and community members will continue to support this effort, which will clearly result in healthier employees and a healthier community.”

Mitchell, a former teacher and administrator for the Niagara Falls City School District, currently serves on the United Way of Niagara’s board of directors and the Board of Trustees of New Hope Baptist Church.

Muto, a member of the Niagara USA Chamber board of directors, is a former president of the Pine Avenue Business Association.

Rotella is a member of the New York State Emergency Medical Services Council and the Niagara Falls City Council.

The $5 million capital campaign was launched in February 2004 to help fund Memorial’s new Emergency Department and The Heart Center of Niagara, a two-story building now under construction at the corner of Walnut Avenue and 10th Street. To date, the campaign has raised just over $4.4 million, said Patricia E. Berggren, Memorial’s vice president for foundation and community relations.

“We have had numerous inquiries from patients and community members asking how they can contribute,” Berggren said. “It’s time to transition this appeal to the community, which clearly understands how much this lifesaving effort will benefit the Greater Niagara region. We are very fortunate to have leadership support from Carrie Mitchell, Lucy Muto and Babe Rotella, three widely respected community advocates who are also experienced fund raisers.”

Berggren said the final phase of the ER & Cardiac Care campaign will include appeals to area businesses and industries as well as community members and their families. In addition, it will highlight the important role that ER1, Memorial’s recently upgraded emergency department, plays in improving the quality of health care in Niagara.

“ER1 is the only emergency room in Niagara County staffed solely by board certified specialists in emergency medicine. In addition, Memorial is the only hospital in Western New York to fully

integrate its emergency room with a comprehensive cardiac care center,” Berggren said. “The
success of this capital campaign will ensure that Niagarans live longer and enjoy a better quality of life.”

Money from the campaign will be used to provide cutting-edge medical equipment and program development in both the Emergency Department and The Heart Center of Niagara.

In the Emergency Department, that equipment will include bedside monitors, adult and pediatric crash carts, portable ventilators and portable EKG machines. A paperless clinical ER computer system designed to speed incoming patients through the admission and treatment process has already been introduced into ER1’s operation.

New equipment for the Heart Center will include ultrasound imaging units and a non-invasive CT angiography system designed to supplement the PET scan technology already being used at Memorial.

Programming planned for the new Heart Center will be geared toward research and education, with an emphasis on preventing and reversing heart disease.

Research studies will be structured to follow the outcomes of patients treated at the center, with an eye toward dramatically reducing the rate of cardiac disease in the Greater Niagara community. Education programs will emphasize the importance of a healthy lifestyle – including regular exercise, proper nutrition, and smoking avoidance or cessation.

In addition, Memorial’s existing cardio/pulmonary rehab program will be expanded and relocated to the new facility. That unit will be furnished with the latest in exercise and monitoring equipment.