Iowa Specialty Hospital–Belmond Receives Grant Funds for Purchase of Lab Centrifuge Machine

Iowa Specialty Hospital–Belmond recently received $2,250 in grant funding from First Citizens Charitable Foundation as well as $1,000 from the Wright County Charitable Foundation to help fund the purchase of a Hettich Universal 320 centrifuge machine for the Belmond hospital lab.

A centrifuge is a vital piece of laboratory equipment that is used many times each day to spin blood samples at a high rate of speed in order to separate red blood cells from blood plasma. This function allows lab technicians to perform necessary testing on the sample. The current centrifuge machines that are utilized by Iowa Specialty Hospital-Belmond lab staff are showing age and in need of replacement as the option to fix them is no longer cost effective.

By providing the lab with a new centrifuge machine, Iowa Specialty-Belmond providers and staff will be able to provide consistent, reliable, and timely lab results to their patients.  Since the centrifuge is utilized thousands of times over the course of a calendar year, the purchase of a new machine will be beneficial to all of the patients that are treated at Iowa Specialty Hospital-Belmond.

“The larger capacity of this new centrifuge helps streamline our processes when all of the work from our ancillary facilities come in,” stated Holly Peebler, Iowa Specialty Hospitals & Clinics Lab Leader. “Lab staff feels very grateful to the community for their support in obtaining this centrifuge.”

To learn more about First Citizens Charitable Foundation, visit their website at https://myfcb.bank/charitable-foundation.html.

To learn more about Wright County Charitable Foundation, visit their website at https://www.wrightcounty.iowa.gov/departments/economic_development/charitable_foundation.php.

To learn more about the Hettich Universal 320 centrifuge, visit their website at https://www.hettweb.com/products/universal320/.

*Pictured from left to right are Iowa Specialty Hospital – Belmond lab staff:
Holly Peebler, Lab Leader, Tara Leeper, MLT, and Michaela Brood, MLS.