(Seguin) – Patients at Guadalupe Regional Medical Center no longer have to wait for the lab results that they need. Health officials at the GRMC say they are thankful to Baptist Health Foundation of San Antonio for “blessing” the GRMC lab with a $140,000 grant for lab testing equipment, equipment they say will now expedite results.
Cody Knowlton, Baptist Health Foundation president and CEO, says the foundation is committed to serving those who serve others.
“The Baptist Health Foundation was formed about 17 years ago when the Baptist Health System sold and became a for profit institution and so the money from that sale funded a foundation that does nothing but give money away in an eight-county area including Guadalupe County for health-related needs and causes and so we do that to honor our Baptist heritage and to give God the glory for that,” said Knowlton. “This is one of well over 100 grants that we are making this year. It’s for $140,000 to the Guadalupe Regional Medical Center and it’s going to support a lab that is going to do testing for tuberculosis, for COVID, for other venereal type diseases and so it will be a rapid test type situation so the foundation approached us and said, ‘could you help do this?’ And we looked at it and said, ‘we think it’s a good fit’ and we were happy and honored to do it.”
Knowlton says the Guadalupe Regional Medical Foundation has proven that with a little help, it can improve the health and care of patients at GRMC.
“First and foremost, we have a track record with this organization. This would have been the fifth grant that we have made to this organization since 2007. We knew it was a great organization. They do great work here. The fact that it’s in Guadalupe County also makes a difference because obviously a lot of the non-profits that we support are in Bexar County and Comal County and so Guadalupe County and those surrounding counties don’t have a ton of non-profits and so when we get a good non-profit that does good work, we want to support them,” said Knowlton.
Among those set to utilize the new equipment, is Janelle Tharp, the executive director of women’s services. Tharp says having on the spot results will help with the care of mothers and their babies.
“This money for the lab was going to help our department in testing our moms for group b strep and we will get results back immediately. There won’t be any lag time and that way we will be able to treat the moms and the babies right away. We treat them regardless. We go ahead and give them the penicillin and they don’t necessarily need it so we are treating them with something that they don’t necessarily need because of the safety of the baby. But by doing this, we will know which ones we need to treat,” said Tharp.
Nicole Patek, executive director of emergency services, says patients in the ER will especially benefit. She says fast results are critical during medical emergencies.
“The money today is going to help the ER population so any person that comes in with like symptoms of abdominal pain or cramping, that we have to do sexually transmitted infection testing similar to the birthing center, we will be able to get that result back today like the same time during their visit so we will know exactly how to treat that patient. Right now, some patients get treated based on their symptoms and what the doctor assesses so they could be getting antibiotics that they do need or sometimes they don’t get the antibiotics and they wait the two to three days and then we have to call the patient back and start them on the antibiotics,” said Patek.
Overseeing the scope of lab tests and their results is Maria Corriveau, director of the GRMC lab. Corriveau says having results for potentially high-risk conditions plays a major role in getting down to the root of the problem and helping patients heal.
“Currently, a lot of our STD testing goes to our reference lab in California. Due to the pandemic, a lot of our results are taking, I want to say seven to 10 days to come back. What this money is going to allow is to be able to give patients these results the same day,” said Corriveau.
Those wishing to end their year by giving are encouraged to donate to the Guadalupe Regional Medical Foundation. Donations can be made by visiting grmedfoundation.org.