Beth Patri, Allegany Health Network-Westfield Memoriali Hospital board member/artist, created the 12-foot wooden train, displayed in front of AHN-WMH, so the community can witness the progress of “The WMH Foundation: The Little Hospital That Could” Endowment as it unfolds. Patri is accompanied by Patricia Gaughan DiPalma, Westfield Memorial Hospital executive director, and Jon Northrop, Westfield Memorial Hospital Foundation finance/investment committee chair.

The Westfield Memorial Hospital Foundation announces its 2021 Annual Campaign is under way with a goal of $200,000, according to Dr. Kathryn Bronstein, board president.

As a major source of fundraising for Westfield Memorial Hospital, the WMH Foundation works with the community hospital to provide financial support for the hospital. In the past year the foundation has provided funding for telehealth technology, Laboratory Department equipment: blood bank system, Reagent refrigerator, a chemistry analyzer and network wiring for laboratory equipment.

“The entire foundation board and I are pleased to inform you that we reached last year’s annual campaign fundraising goal thanks to all of our kind and generous donors,” said Patricia Gaughan DiPalma, WMHF executive director, “Given the extraordinary social circumstances, we could not have achieved this without each individual contribution. We continue to need your help to fulfill our promise to continue funding for cutting-edge diagnostic equipment. If WMH is to remain a forerunner in enhanced diagnostic services, the foundation will repeatedly be called on to fund sophisticated equipment in all hospital departments on an as needed basis.”

A recent mailing to past and potential donors, noted the Westfield Memorial Hospital Foundation is beginning this year’s Annual Campaign; all are invited to join in this worthwhile endeavor by returning their gift as soon as possible to the WMH Foundation, 189 E. Main St., Westfield. For those who would like to learn more about the hospital Foundation or how to give to the 2021 Annual Campaign, email DiPalma at patricia.dipalma@ahn.org, call 793-2338 or visit the foundation’s website at www.westfieldhospitalfoundation.org.

“We’d like to see more residents participate in this campaign than ever before,” Bronstein said. “It’s the generosity of the people who the hospital serves who help make the difference. I challenge each and every one in our hospital service area of Ashville, Bemus Point, Brocton, Chautauqua, Clymer, Dewittville, Findley Lake, Mayville, Panama, Portland, Ripley, Sherman, Stockton and Westfield to step up and take ownership of the need for state-of-the-art medical equipment for our community hospital. If you value having a hospital close by, and if you, a friend, a neighbor, a family member or a loved one, have ever been a patient at Westfield Memorial, please make a tax-deductible donation of any size to our campaign. Every gift is important to meet our goal. Be a hospital champion and send your gift today.”

Bronstein said the foundation is also working to increase its support of the The Little Hospital That Could endowment fund.

“Never has the need for an endowment, to ensure the on-going delivery of quality healthcare for years to come, been more evident than now,” she said.

“The pandemic has put a strain on all parts of America’s vast, but fragmented healthcare system. And because these stresses are even more pronounced in rural communities such as ours, we recognize the importance of local funding of the endowment to keep healthcare accessible to all of us and not a luxury for a few,” said DiPalma.

In addition to emergency care, the hospital provides an array of services, including ambulatory and short stay surgery, outpatient diagnostic services, physical therapy, cardiac testing and rehab, imaging, women’s diagnostic services, digital mammography, laboratory, diabetes education, nuclear stress testing, wound and infusion clinics, inpatient care, and a specialty services suite that includes general surgery, digestive diseases, OB-GYN services, orthopedics, urology, cardiology and diversified hearing services.

Telemedicine services for rheumatology and endocrinology are also available at AHN-WMH. The hospital also provides primary care services on the grounds of the Chautauqua Institution during its nine week summer season.