The Hospitals’ Lottery 2013 was launched last Friday and over 40% of tickets have already been sold.
The grand prize for the fundraiser is the 2013 Hospitals’ Lottery Home, a 1,411 sq. ft. bungalow valued at $629,933, built by True-Line Homes. Officials said this Lottery offers more prizes than ever before with a total of 560 including the grand prize show home located in Vanier Woods at 201 Van Slyke Way.
The Hospitals’ Lottery is an annual fundraiser for the Red Deer Regional Health Foundation. Since the inception of the lottery 14 years ago, over $4.4 million has been raised to enhance healthcare throughout the Central Zone.
Tickets are sold only in Alberta and all proceeds are used to fund health care enhancements throughout the Central Zone. This year’s recipient of the money raised is the Hospital’s outpatient department.
More than 16,000 Central Albertans will experience the direct benefit of this year’s Hospital’s Lottery, officials said, as the lottery is dedicated to helping buy new equipment for the Red Deer Regional Hospital outpatient department.
The outpatient department provides a valuable array of minor surgical and diagnostic services to patients. The department is well known for its task of casting broken bones however this department extends far past that. “Nearly 10,000 people will visit the outpatient program for the cast room and another 16,000 will come through for a minor procedure,” said Barb Mehlhorn, clinical manager of the outpatient program at the Red Deer Regional Hospital.
“Beyond casts we do hundreds of different kinds of procedures in the department including minor surgical procedures,” said Mehlhorn. Surgical specialties and procedures performed in the outpatient department include urology, non-elective plastic surgery, gynecology, orthopedics, dermatology, ophthalmology and general surgery.
The department will use the funds raised to reach their goal of enhancing equipment in OPD procedure and exam rooms at Red Deer Regional Hospital. The OPD will be improving their procedure room equipment and outfitting the exam rooms with new surgical equipment such as updated surgical tables, new instruments and improved surgical lighting, a cautery machine and stainless steel cabinetry, officials said.
Transforming the department at the Red Deer Regional Hospital will benefit all the residents in Central Alberta who require minor surgery procedures and the surgeons who perform them, said Mehlhorn.
She added this will decrease wait times for minor surgery procedures, increase the volume of procedures that can be done within the current space in OPD, increase flexibility to perform a variety of procedures using the same procedure room and improve the quality of service and enhance the patient experience.
Ticket prices are the same as last year at $25 for a single ticket, five tickets for $100 and 15 tickets for $250.
Tickets can be purchased by calling 403-340-1878 in Red Deer and area or toll free at 1-877-808-9005 or by faxing 1-866-888-0380. They can also be accessed online at www.hospitalslottery.com or by mail at P.O. Box 1098, Red Deer, Alberta T4N 6S5. In person, ticket sales are available at the grand prize show home and the Red Deer Regional Health Foundation office at 3942 50A Ave.
An early bird draw will take place on June 25th. All tickets for this draw must be purchased before 11 p.m. on June 9th. The final draw for all remaining prizes will take place on July 8th. To be eligible for this draw all tickets must be purchased before 11 p.m. on June 23th.
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