Roundup, MT

A trauma room is where one is rushed to when you have suffered a traumatic accident. When the accident happens the clock starts running what is called the Golden Hour. It has been proven that what medical care given to the victim in the first hour after an accident will greatly determine their chances of survival. This means that a team of Emergency Medical Service personnel, a medical staff and a well equipped trauma room is of vital importance.

Roundup Memorial Hospital staff and administration work hard to keep the trauma room at the hospital up to date to provide high quality care during the Golden Hour. Lori Shanks, a member of the grant committee, has written several grants to insure that the trauma room stays well equipped. “When you live in a rural community with activities like horses, chain saws, hunting, oil wells, coal mines, and everyday ag work, accidents happen. Roundup Memorial Hospital needs to be ready when they do” stated Lori Shanks.

Some of the items that have been bought with the grant money are a new probable heart monitor and vital sing recorder. This peace of equipment costs over $9,000. Emergency department stretchers allow the medical staff to move and situate trauma victims to better treat them. These units cost over $11,000. Another piece of equipment is called a Bair Hugger. A victim can be placed in this unit to be warmed up. There is an attachment that allows medical staff to warm fluids that are being given to the patient. Theresa Kirby added, “This is the type of equipment that allows Roundup Memorial Hospital to provide quality care and stabilize trauma victims during the Golden Hour. Then when the victim is stabilized we can transport them safely on for their major medical needs.”

Do to economical hardship the Roundup community consolidated the school, city and county libraries into the community library. Many of the Library board members, staff and friends of the library have participated in the Horizon program. These people have had roles in the Horizon program as participants, advisory board, and facilitators. This has been a strong partnership that has benefited the Community and Library.

Paul taught a class on serving on local government boards, districts and commisions. His day long presentation saw representatives from the the county, schools, city, conservation district, library board and various other groups.

The Community Library has been struggling for years to save enough funds to put in an electric door for the handicap patrons. Even though the Library is one level, the manuel door has been a major problem for wheel chair access. After one patron got a wheelchair stuck in the door frame and had to be manually pulled out by the Librian, the Library Board decided to put their used book sale money towards buying and wiring a new door. They found this to be a very slow and frustrating process. The Board then approached the three government entities (County, City, School) that fund the Library to see if they could help. Due to fiscal constraints, none of the entities had funds for the project. The Board then decided to look into grants to boost their meager savings. Two members of the Library Board attended the Mike Vogel grant workshop through the Horizons Program. They then pursued some of the resources given to them through Mike and another Grant attendee that had knowledge for handicap access. The Friends of the Library offered to help with the project as well. All this networking brought about a successful grant application to fund the new Library door, which will be installed this summer.

The Roundup Memorial Hospital and Medical Center has developed a grant committee to assist with ongoing needs of the facility. Two employees from the hospital attended a grant writing workshop that was held in Roundup. This workshop inspired the formation of the grant writing committee. The committee consists of staff, administration, and hospital board members.

The group has already submitted a proposal for a new autoclave. The existing autoclave is 60 years old. The committee is currently working on several other proposals as well.

Sarah Earwood, the chair of the committee, stated “we know that we can not run a hospital on grant funds alone, but anything we can do to improve the facility and the quality of service provided to the patients will have a huge impact to the community.”

A grant writing workshop was identified as a need through the Horizons program. MSU Extension and the Horizon program brought Mike Vogel to teach the all day class.

Mike Vogel was a guest in Roundup to present a work shop on grant writing through the fiscal support of Horizons. Again, the city, county, schools, library, hospital and other groups were present to learn how to write effective grant applications. Mike did an overview of grant language, avoiding review process pitfalls, potential grant sources and grant accoutablity. Numerous groups left armed with the knowledge and ability to pursue grants/funds to enhance and/or fund projects that otherwise would not happen.

Paul taught a class on serving on local government boards, districts and commisions. His day long presentation saw representatives from the the county, schools, city, conservation district, library board and various other groups. Attendees left with a better understanding of open meeting law, codes of ethics and parliamentary procedure practices. They also participated in a question and answer forum. Many of these participants take their new hand book with them to reference during their meetings and have commented that they feel better equiped to manage their duties during their meetings.

The Web page continues to grow and has now added the option for the Local Government Entities to post their minutes. The County Commissioners were the first Board to use the site. They have stepped to the plate to promote Community Communication for the needs and development of the County and to promote local citizen understanding of how County Government works.

Through the Horizon Process a Committee was formed to work through the Extension Office to form a Community Web Page to promote knowledge and awareness of the Roundup area for community and economic growth. This web site was designed to put out pictures of the actual physical appearance of the Roundup landscape and to promote tourism and out door hunting, fishing, horse sports and any other activities that Roundup could host to enhance the Community’s growth and economy. This web site has under gone several revisions to make it user friendly and offers the option to post additional information by web site users through a review process.

The Horizons Group set up a Brochure Committee that has researched the old brochures and the current status of the Roundup Community to develop a new attractive brochure to promote community and economic growth. The distribution of the brochure is to help encourage tourism, realty sales, out door sports and recreational opportunities. The brochure is currently in draft stage. The committee and the community are now in the review process to go to print.