Children’s Miracle Network at Samaritan Awards $399,152 to Help Local Kids

Published on: December 23, 2019

Watertown, New York — In 2019, Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals (CMN) of Northern New York at Samaritan Medical Center awarded $399,152 to benefit local kids in Jefferson, Lewis and St. Lawrence counties. All of this is possible with the generous support of the local community, our corporate partners, and the hospital’s commitment to Children’s Miracle Network.

One-hundred percent of the funds raised in the North Country stay local to help children in a medical crisis and their families. Samaritan Medical Center ensures this by covering all overhead expenses of this special program. The funds raised are utilized in two important ways:

• Direct Assistance to Families: CMN at Samaritan is one of the only CMN-affiliated hospitals that provides direct assistance to families of children facing a medical crisis. This includes assistance with medical bills, reimbursement for travel expenses (mileage, lodging, meals, etc.), adaptable equipment, and most recently, the training of service dogs. The application process is simple and is based on need rather than income.
• Capital Equipment Purchases: When children are hospitalized or need treatment, oftentimes specialized equipment is needed to treat or test children and adolescents. Requests are made from child-centered areas of Samaritan Medical Center, such as pediatrics, labor and delivery, neonatal intensive care unit, and the emergency department.

The CMN Allocations Committee meets on a quarterly basis to review requests for assistance from families and capital equipment. The committee comprises representatives from local partner organizations, such as Kinney Drugs, Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club; physicians and staff from Samaritan; and local media partners, WWTI ABC 50 and The Border 106.7.

So far in 2019, CMN used a total of $113,435 to help 74 children and their families with medical expenses; disbursed $100,000 of its ten-year one million dollar pledge to the Car-Freshner Center for Women and Children; and purchased $185,717 worth of critical pediatric equipment for child-centered areas of the hospital, including:

• Rapid Infuser fluid warmer in the Emergency Department to save lives by quickly replacing blood loss or fluid volume
• New physiological monitoring system that monitors all patients and their vital signs in our 12-bed Level II Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU)
• New transport incubator when newborns needs to be transferred to a higher level of care within Samaritan Medical Center
• Pediatric IV Arm and Pump simulator sets for nursing education purposes

The Allocations Committee first meeting of 2020 is scheduled for February 26, 2020.

For more information, contact Kristin LaClair, Director of Children’s Miracle Network at Samaritan Medical Center, at 315-785-4053 or klaclair@shsny.com.