PUTNAM — Congressman Joe Courtney  toured Day Kimball Hospital recently to see how grants the hospital received this year through the USDA Rural Development Direct Loan & Grant Program are helping to provide the latest in care and technology to patients in northeast Connecticut. 

The Congressman was joined by USDA Rural Development Norwich Area Director Johan Strandson as well as State Representative Daniel Rovero (D-51) and State Representative Christine Randall (D-44). Day Kimball Healthcare (DKH) President and CEO Robert Smanik, Chairman of the Board Joseph Adiletta and staff led the group to the hospital’s Laboratory and Ambulatory Care Unit to see some of the new equipment and technology provided by the grants.

Day Kimball Healthcare (DKH) received three grants from the USDA’s Rural Development Direct Loan & Grant Program in 2016.One of the grants provided funding for the purchase of a Stereotactic Biopsy Unit, a special mammography machine that helps guide radiologists when taking a biopsy of potentially abnormal tissue. Patients had access to stereotactic biopsies at Day Kimball Hospital previously, but the equipment was a mobile unit that was brought in through a service agreement with an outside vendor approximately every other week. With its own machine on-site every day, the hospital will soon be able to serve more patients and in a faster timeframe, lessening the amount of time patients must wait to find out if a potential abnormality is cancerous or not. 

A second grant provided funding for the purchase of a new PillCam recorder and monitor, which allows patients having an endoscopic procedure to have it done in a minimally invasive way, avoiding potential risks associated with traditional endoscopies such as risks from patient sedation, radiation and bleeding. Patients simply swallow the PillCam capsule, which then captures thousands of images of the GI tract and transmits them to a high-definition monitor for the doctor to examine. This new PillCam recorder replaced an older model that had previously been in use at the hospital, providing patients with the latest technology in minimally invasive endoscopies.

The third grant provided funding for the purchase of a Tissue Tek Vacuum Infiltration Processor for the hospital’s laboratory. This instrument enables pathologists to diagnose any abnormality in any human tissue removed from the human body. This equipment replaces an older version put into use 13 years ago. The new processor provides the most recent technology for providing reliable pathology results in a faster timeframe, allowing for same-day diagnosis in the lab. This was a critical upgrade to allow the hospital’s lab to keep up with the more than 6,000 patient biopsy samples it processes each year.

During the tour, Smanik and Adiletta thanked Strandson and the legislators for their continued support of Day Kimball.

“The support of our legislators is so vital in so many ways, including helping us to get connected to opportunities to apply for federal grant funding such as this,” Smanik said. He continued, “We’re so grateful to them as well as the USDA Rural Development Program for recognizing the importance of continuing that support. Funding and grants such as these are critically important to allowing our community hospital to stay current with the fast pace of medical technology so that we can provide the best care and service possible to the residents of northeast Connecticut.”

Courtney said, “I was grateful for the opportunity to tour Day Kimball Hospital recently in order to see how they are using grants from the USDA Rural Development program to provide outstanding care to patients in northeast Connecticut. I am very pleased that eastern Connecticut as a whole this year received more Rural Development funding that any other part of the state  – a total of nearly $140 million dollars between grants and loans.  Day Kimball has been especially adept at navigating through the Rural Development grant approval process while working closely with my office. The hospital should be viewed as a national example of how Rural Development grants can be used to improve the lives of local residents each and every day.”

In March of this year Congressman Courtney hosted two seminars designed to inform local business and community leaders in eastern Connecticut about grant opportunities available through the program. In 2015 the loan program supported $38.6 million in loans and $5.2 million in grants in Connecticut’s Second Congressional District. That funding helped to launch several projects across eastern Connecticut, including the purchase of new emergency room equipment at Day Kimball Hospital.