Les Haynes was dedicated to ensuring everyone in the community has access to high-quality, lifesaving healthcare. His gifts to Dartmouth Health are a shining example of the power of philanthropy to transform a challenge into an opportunity.
Matthew P. Haag, Dartmouth Health chief development officerDartmouth Health Advanced Response Team (DHART) has received a transformational monetary gift through the final will and testament of a former patient. A $6.7 million gift from the estate of Les Haynes to Dartmouth Health’s Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) will be used to initiate a phased expansion of DHART that stands to transform its ability to reach patients in every community across northern New England, no matter how remote.
Haynes, who lived in New Hampshire’s Lakes Region, credited DHART with saving his life on several occasions. As a resident of one of the nation’s most rural areas, Haynes recognized the difficulty that some members of his community faced in traveling to vital scheduled appointments at DHMC. Haynes frequently volunteered to drive members of his community to DHMC.
“Les Haynes was dedicated to ensuring everyone in the community has access to high-quality, lifesaving healthcare. His gifts to Dartmouth Health are a shining example of the power of philanthropy to transform a challenge into an opportunity,” said Matthew P. Haag, chief development officer for Dartmouth Health. “Les was more than just a patient and neighbor to all of us at Dartmouth Health. He was also a vital partner in our work to make sure everyone across northern New England can lead their healthiest lives possible.”
DHMC is the home of New Hampshire’s only trauma center certified to provide the highest level of care for patients with traumatic injury, 24-hour cardiac catheterization laboratory, and children’s hospital, and has the highest level neonatal intensive care unit in the state and surrounding region. DHMC’s high-caliber emergency and critical care, as well as the hospital’s geographic location near the border of New Hampshire and Vermont, make it a vital resource for all of northern New England when health crises arise. However, getting to Lebanon during an emergency can be difficult or even impossible.
DHART helicopters and ambulances respond to thousands of transport requests annually in New Hampshire, Vermont, western Maine, upstate New York, and beyond as needed, delivering patients to DHMC or another appropriate medical facility and serve as an extension of the hospital in the air. The transportation team includes highly trained emergency medical professionals who can provide treatment in the field, and in the air, and is equipped to provide services many air ambulances do not, such as blood transfusions and other emergency procedures.
“DHART has been operating for 30 years, and as many towns’ ambulances face staffing or funding shortages, and local hospitals have been forced to reduce specialty care programs, the demand for our services has only increased,” said DHART director Michael B. Mulhern. “With this generous gift, we will begin enacting a plan to address these challenges and significantly expand our fleet and team.”
After acquiring new ambulance and transport vehicles, phase two of the project will see the development of an EMT certification program to expand the highly-trained medical workforce underpinning DHART, and will bring coordinated dispatch software to all Dartmouth Health member hospitals. Phase three will bring improved coordination across the fleet through broader total fleet management, and improvements to DHART and other transport in southern New Hampshire.
About Dartmouth Health
Dartmouth Health, New Hampshire’s only academic health system and the state’s largest private employer, serves patients across northern New England. Dartmouth Health provides access to more than 2,000 providers in almost every area of medicine, delivering care at its flagship hospital, Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center (DHMC) in Lebanon, NH, as well as across its wide network of hospitals, clinics and care facilities. DHMC is consistently named the #1 hospital in New Hampshire by U.S. News & World Report, and is recognized for high performance in numerous clinical specialties and procedures. Dartmouth Health includes Dartmouth Cancer Center, one of only 57 National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Centers in the nation, and the only such center in northern New England; Dartmouth Health Children’s, which includes the state’s only children’s hospital and multiple locations around the region; member hospitals in Lebanon, Keene, Claremont and New London, NH, and Windsor and Bennington, VT; Visiting Nurse and Hospice for Vermont and New Hampshire; and more than 24 clinics that provide ambulatory and specialty services across New Hampshire and Vermont. Through its historical partnership with Dartmouth and the Geisel School of Medicine, Dartmouth Health trains nearly 400 medical residents and fellows annually, and performs cutting-edge research and clinical trials recognized across the globe with Geisel and the White River Junction VA Medical Center in White River Junction, VT. Dartmouth Health and its more than 13,000 employees are deeply committed to serving the healthcare needs of everyone in our communities, and to providing each of our patients with exceptional, personal care.