Tobey Hospital Guild raising funds for multimillion dollar emergency room renovations
The Aug. 1 performance of Ariadne Daskalakis might have been the last event in the Music From Land's End concert series, but the project for which it helped raise funds, a multimillion-dollar expansion of the emergency room at Tobey Hospital, is just beginning.
The concert benefitted the Tobey Hospital Guild, a non-profit organization that raises funds to help Tobey provide health care to its patients. The Guild recently finished donating $100,000 to the hospital for beds and recliners in the Intensive Care Unit. Guild member Agatha St. Amour said that in January, the hospital administration approached them to begin raising funds for a ER renovation and expansion.
The Tobey Hospital Emergency Room was designed to accommodate 20,000 patients annually, but treated more than 32,000 in 2014, according to Southcoast Health spokesperson Peter Cohenno. He said that by 2019, the volume is expected to grow to 45,000.
As far as the specifics of the expansion, Cohenno said the project is still very much in the planning stage. St. Amour said the project is expected to cost approximately $15 million.
The Guild has pledged to raise $250,000 to help with the renovation and expansion. St. Amour said she wasn't sure how much the concert raised, but that all the proceeds would go toward the pledge.
The Guild, which has 125 members made up of current and former hospital employees as well as everyday citizens, raises money by hosting various fundraisers throughout the year. They also run the Tobey Hospital gift shop, with all proceeds going toward Tobey Hospital.
Cohenno said the Tobey ER renovations are part of a larger $25 million system-wide fundraising campaign to support Southcoast Health. St. Amour said this included work on the OR in Charlton Memorial Hospital in Fall River, and renovation and expansion of the family unit at St. Luke's Hospital in New Bedford.
St. Amour said that the Guild will be hosting another musical fundraiser on Sept. 19, when a Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons tribute group comes to Wareham by way of Las Vegas.
For more information on the concert or the Tobey Hospital Guild, call 508-973-5752.