DeZwirek family donates $1M to Huntsville Memorial Hospital

Staff members and the DeZwirek family pose for a photo under the newly named DeZwirek Family Emergency Department at Huntsville Memorial Hospital in Huntsville, Ont. on Monday, May 11, 2015. (Mike Walker/ CTV Barrie)

Huntsville Memorial Hospital has received a big donation and the people behind it have a special connection to the town.

Twenty-four thousand people come through the emergency department at the Huntsville hospital every year; it was especially busy on Monday and will be like this throughout the summer.

“This is going into our busy time of year; we are flooded and during the summer months our visits really escalate,” says Jan Goossens, chief of staff.

The Huntsville hospital is constantly upgrading its equipment in order to improve the quality of care residents and cottagers receive. On Monday, the hospital got a much needed financial boost from Jason and Audrey DeZwirek to the tune of $1 million.

“Over the next decade alone, people will visit the emergency department at the Huntsville site of Muskoka Algonquin well over 200,000 times,” says Jason DeZwirek in a statement. “This gift is for them, for the staff who will care for them and the community that means so much to us.”

The couple has strong ties to the Huntsville area; they met in the town 25 years ago, while camp counselling and have a cottage in Lake of Bays. They want their donation to be specifically used to improve the day-to-day care at the ER department.

“Education, healthcare and the environment are the three pillars of our family’s philanthropy and the three pillars of a healthy, sustainable community,' continued DeZwirek in a statement.” Most communities have needs in all three areas but currently there are acute needs at the Huntsville Hospital and a funding gap that needs bridging to ensure sustainable healthcare here.”

The hospital is reviewing how the money will be spent, but it will be used to improve equipment and new technology like electronic medical records.

“By having the proper technology and equipment we are able to deal with this flood of patients in a more timely basis,” says Goossens. “The technology is crucial to be able to give patients the correct diagnosis in a timely fashion.”

The donation is also a significant contribution to the hospital’s foundation fundraising campaign, which has an annual goal of $3 million.

“The hospital annually has to replace equipment. That costs about $400,000, so when we go to the community and say we need three million dollars that's to continue to pay for these new investments,” says John Crockett, spokesperson for the Huntsville Hospital Foundation.

This is one of the largest donations the Huntsville hospital has received and to recognize the DeZwirek generosity, the hospital has renamed the emergency department the DeZwirek Family Emergency Department in their honour.