Wish List
Specialized Equipment: $2 million
The right equipment is essential to delivering the best care. At BC Women’s Hospital & Health Centre, our equipment needs are even greater because of the special patients we treat.
Unlike most hospitals, we require different sizes and kinds of equipment because our patients range from premature newborns to mature adults. Often our equipment becomes obsolete due to advancements in medical technology. In some cases, equipment simply wears out.
The doctors, nurses and medical staff of BC Women’s Hospital & Health Centre have a long “wish list” of equipment they need to provide the best care possible to patients and families. This equipment is not covered by the Hospital’s operating fund. We must turn to you, the community we serve, for help.
Without proper funding for equipment, our newborns and the women we serve would not get the care they deserve.
Your donations help ensure that they do.
If you would like additional information on our needs, please contact the Foundation office at (604) 875-2270.
Here are a few examples of the immediate and urgent items on our Wish List:
For Fetal Maternal Care
Fetal Heart Monitors
(9 for our Birthing Program (one with a Telemetry Set); 1 for Anti-partum Home Care)| Wish We Could Have | 8 |
| Unit Price | 5 x $15,000 and 3 x $13,000 |
| Total Cost | $111,000 |
These machines are used in over 50% of all births, helping caregivers determine if the baby is in distress. They monitor the baby’s heartbeat as well as the mother’s blood pressure, heart rate, and uterine activity. With telemetry sets, the unit is worn like a big, wide belt and can be worn as the mother walks, sits, kneels, and it’s waterproof if she needs to be in a bath tub.
Using these monitors, nurses and physicians ensure baby and mom are doing well during labour. Often pregnancies appear to be going smoothly when suddenly the monitor detects distress in the baby or the mother. The sooner a problem is detected the better chance there is for the safe delivery of baby and the good health of mom.
Each fetal monitor is used approximately 200 times per year, with each usage being an average of eight hours. The twins monitors are able to distinguish two heartbeats.
Ultrasound Machine
| Wish We Could Have | 1 |
| Unit Price | $300,000 |
| Total Cost | $300,000 |
Ultrasounds are the best diagnostic tool for prenatal diagnosis. Ultrasounds are used to find a heartbeat, to identify twins or triplets, to predict the due date, to see if the baby is growing and developing as it should, and to help find and diagnose fetal or maternal abnormalities.
These machines literally save lives.
Currently, BC Women’s has only six ultrasound machines to use for scanning routine and high risk pregnancies, and only one of these is equipped with 3D technology. We have over 7,200 babies born at BC Women’s every year, and nearly 16,000 ultrasounds performed annually! Six machines cannot handle the constant demand. And the problem is worse because four of these machines are quite old, and the quality of their scans is declining.
It is extremely important to have the most up-to-date ultrasound machines because clear scans mean critical life-saving decisions can be made.
OR Table
| Wish We Could Have | 1 |
| Unit Price | $40,000 |
| Total Cost | $40,000 |
An OR table is a highly specialized piece of equipment. To provide the best care to BC’s women the sectioned surface must be able to adjust to accommodate various sizes and shapes for long hours and for a variety of procedures and operating positions : Height adjustment, longitudinal slide, lateral tilt, and back section need to be quickly, precisely and smoothly controlled.
Transport Stretchers
| Wish We Could Have | 1 |
| Unit Price | $11,000 |
| Total Cost | $11,000 |
Stretchers are a staple at any hospital, to ensure the safety and easy transport of patients. They feature an IV pole and oxygen tank carrier, and side rails for patient safety. They are easy and light to move. The transport stretchers are critical to all areas and they allow for quick, safe transport of patients. When we experience high utilization, patients can wait safely on these stretchers until a bed is ready.
Roll-on Wheelchair Scale
| Wish We Could Have | 1 |
| Unit Price | $3,000 |
| Total Cost | $3,000 |
Women who use wheelchairs have great difficulties being weighed. Few facilities, other than loading docks, have the ability to account for the weight of a chair (electric chairs can weight over 100 kg), let alone remove the woman safely and with dignity. Women ask all the time in our Access program if we have the ability to weigh them, but unfortunately, our ceiling lift combined with our physical space doesn't allow it. The Access program is an ideal place to provide a scale as we have the use of a ceiling lift and specially trained staff to facilitate transfer in and out of a wheelchair. The wheelchair scale is collapsible and portable, which aids convenience and storage.
Breast Feeding Chairs
| Wish We Could Have | 50 |
| Unit Price | $1,000 |
| Total Cost | $50,000 |
These chairs are used by mothers as they establish good breastfeeding practices with their babies. These are specially designed to allow nurses, lactation consultants, and families to assist mothers with feeding. They are also designed with maximum comfort in mind for the newly delivered mom.
Breast Pumps
| Wish We Could Have | 6 |
| Unit Price | $2,000 |
| Total Cost | $12,000 |
We are committed to promoting breast feeding as the best choice of nutrition for babies. For those mothers who choose to breast feed, breast pumps can be required to assist mothers. With over 7,000 deliveries per year, these machines are in high demand.
For Newborn Care
Phototherapy Lights
| Wish We Could Have | 3 |
| Unit Price | $6,900 |
| Total Cost | $20,700 |
Phototherapy lights, commonly called "Bili-lights" are used to help infants with jaundice, a yellow coloring of the skin and eyes. They have special lights that break down excess jaundice to safe levels. Many of our existing bili-lights are old technology, and take longer to achieve results. As there can often be up to 5 babies a week requiring this treatment, advances in LED technology means we are able to treat more babies, and achieve results that allow families to return to their homes more quickly.
Infant Oxygen Saturation Monitors
| Wish We Could Have | 2 |
| Unit Price | $4,000 |
| Total Cost | $8,000 |
These monitors are used in the central nursery as well as for the infant car seat challenge tests we perform on some babies. They are accurate devices for measuring whether babies are getting enough oxygen. Also, these monitors are used for the babies coming from the Labour and Delivery Rooms, as they require an oxygen assessment during the course of their stay in hospital. These monitors are used on a daily basis and as equipment ages, and technology improves, new devices are needed.
Handheld Oxygen Saturation Monitors - adult
| Wish We Could Have | 3 |
| Unit Price | $1,700 |
| Total Cost | $5,100 |
Some mothers require an oxygen assessment during the course of their stay in hospital. These monitors are used on a daily basis and as equipment ages, and technology improves, new devices are needed.
Infant Transport:
Vital Signs Transport Monitors
| Wish We Could Have | 5 |
| Unit Price | $30,000 |
| Total Cost | $150,000 |
Infant Transport Incubator System
| Wish We Could Have | 1 |
| Unit Price | $125,000 |
| Total Cost | $125,000 |
The Infant Team transports approximately 2500 Neonatal, Pediatric, and Obstetrical patients annually throughout the Province of British Columbia. A variety of equipment is utilized to monitor patients throughout each transport to ensure the delivery of safe, quality patient care.
The Vital Signs Monitor, a required standard of care, is the primary device utilized by the Infant Transport Team to monitor the Cardio-Respiratory status as well as other vital signs of infants during their transfer to and from the NICU @ C&W. Currently the Infant Transport Team has 5 MDE Escort Transport Monitors in use for neonatal transports; these monitors are an integral part of the transport incubator system. The monitors were purchased in January 1993 and have performed well for over 12 years but are no longer supported by the manufacturer, with the supply of replacement parts exhausted. One of the monitors is now not repairable and others are likely to follow suit over the next year; each time one of these monitors fails in the future, the Transport Incubator fleet will be reduced by one incubator.
As the single largest tertiary program in the Province of British Columbia, C&W provides transport services for the critically ill patients making this a critical replacement priority.
Milk Bank Operational Support
| Wish We Could Have | For 1 Year |
| Unit Price | $45,000 |
| Total Cost | $45,000 |
We have Canada's only donor breast milk program! The program benefits babies whose mothers are unable to provide any or enough breast milk to feed their infants and babies who are deemed medically unfit for formula.
It is important that our Milk Bank continues to operate in order to provide critical nutrition for babies, and allow further research on the benefits of using donor milk. Our Milk Bank also increases awareness, encourages breastfeeding, and endeavours to expand its services across the country, and promote the concept for other Milk Banks in Canada.
For Education and Research
Aboriginal Women's Health Fellowship
| Wish We Could Have | Phase 2 Implementation |
| Unit Price | $86,000 |
| Total Cost | $86,000 |
The success of the first Phase of this Fellowship program calls us to expand our work in this area to ensure health care providers across the province are sensitive and responsive to the reproductive health screening needs of Aboriginal women.
Phase II will expand the training program to physicians, obstetricians and gynaecologists, nurses and other health professionals who provide care for Aboriginal women.
Aboriginal women have a 30% lower participation rate in breast and cervical cancer screening services. As a result, the prevalence of cervical cancer is between four to six times higher among Aboriginal women than non-Aboriginal women. This initiative is important to the improvement of health among Aboriginal women.
