Equipment Enhancements & Projects

When you walk into Fort Saskatchewan Community Hospital, you are walking into a facility shaped by your community's generosity. Every piece of specialized equipment that goes beyond what Alberta Health Services can provide — the monitors, the warmers, the ventilators — exists because the people of Fort Saskatchewan chose to invest in their own healthcare.

That is the work of the Fort Saskatchewan Community Hospital Foundation.

Each year, the Foundation identifies the most pressing equipment needs in consultation with hospital staff and administration, then sets out to raise the funds required to meet them. It is a cycle of listening, fundraising, and delivering — and over the years, it has resulted in an impressive collection of life-changing additions to the hospital.

In 2025, thanks to an extraordinary fundraising effort and the unwavering commitment of our donors, the Foundation successfully purchased a neonatal incubator and phototherapy equipment for the Labour and Delivery department. These are not small purchases — they are investments in the very first moments of a child's life, ensuring that the smallest and most vulnerable patients in our community receive the highest standard of care from the moment they arrive.

As we move into 2026, the Foundation has set its sights on two more critical pieces of equipment: a Panda Warmer and a Fetal Heart Monitor. With deliveries at Fort Saskatchewan Community Hospital steadily increasing, these tools are no longer a consideration for the future — they are a present necessity. Our goal is to raise $80,000 this year to make them a reality.

We are also thrilled to share that a transport ventilator has already been added to the Emergency Department in early 2026, made possible through the remarkable generosity of an anonymous donor. This piece of equipment provides proper oxygenation to intubated patients while staff attend to other critical aspects of emergency care — a truly transformative addition to the department.

Beyond medical equipment, the Foundation also supports the physical spaces that shape the patient experience. The Shell Healing Garden, lovingly maintained by longtime volunteer Kathy Czibere, offers patients, families, and staff a quiet place to rest and restore. Looking ahead, the Foundation has applied for grant funding to renovate the Palliative Care Garden — a project that would bring new benches, a covered pergola, shade trees, and updated pathways to one of the hospital's most meaningful spaces.

The Memorial Tree Wall in the hospital foyer is another landmark made possible through Foundation support. Covered in hand-labelled leaves bearing the names of loved ones, it stands as a permanent tribute to those who have passed through these halls — and those who never got to leave.

Every dollar raised through Foundation events and individual donations flows directly back into the hospital and the community it serves. When you support the Foundation, you are not making an abstract charitable contribution — you are equipping the room where your neighbour's baby will be born, or the bay where a family member may one day need emergency care.

That is what makes this work matter.