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PCH Foundation presents $2.6 million for MRI suite

PCH Foundation Makes Nearly $2.6M Donation

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PANA — The Pana Community Hospital Foundation recently made a donation of $2,575,000 to the hospital for the MRI Caring Suite. At the presentation are, from left, Trina Casner, President and CEO of Pana Community Hospital; Cindy Miles, Diagnostic Imaging Manager; Vickie Coen, Chief Clinical Officer/Nurse Executive with Brian Sims, Pana Community Hospital Foundation Board Chairman, and Derek Ade Executive Director of the Foundation. See story at right.

(Submitted photo)

PANA — The Pana Community Hospital Foundation has made a nearly $2.6 million investment for the hospital’s new MRI Suite. Brian Sims, Pana Community Hospital Foundation Board Chairman and Derek Ade, Foundation Executive Director, a check for $2,575,000 to Trina Casner, PCH President and CEO; Vickie Coen, Chief Clinical Officer/Nurse Executive and Cindy Miles Diagnostic Imaging Manager.

This money was raised from generous donations to the Foundation and will be used to fund the entire cost of the MRI Suite.

“The Foundation is proud to support this project which would not be possible without the generous support of our donors. Time and time again, our community steps up to make sure our hospital is equipped to offer the highest quality of care,” Ade said.

“I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I was truly blown away after seeing the room in person,” Sims said. “The accommodations and comfort that this suite offers is beyond expectations. I am thankful the Foundation was able to support this project with the help of our donors.”

Miles was able to demonstrate the ambient lighting and soothing images available to patients.

“Patients choose the color and brightness of lighting in the room, what music to be played while being scanned, and what images to be displayed on a television in the ceiling and monitor or the patient can even choose a DVD movie to watch,” she said. “By being able to choose customized sights, sounds, and images, a patient is more at ease while being scanned in our MRI Caring Suite than a scan in a standard clinical MRI room.”

“This room is one of a kind,” Casner said. “We wanted an MRI suite that provides the highest quality images with a patient experience that is calming and that is exactly what we got.”

The GE magnet is a 3T (or 3-Tesla) which is the strength of the magnet. The high-separate set of figures and see reason to rejoice. It’s a disorienting moment.

Biden can celebrate the low jobless rate even as Republicans bemoan inflation that is still running dangerously hot.

“It’s the best of times and the worst of times for the U.S. economy, to borrow a phrase,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody’s Analytics. “The economy is full of contradictions as it struggles to get beyond the massive global shocks of the pandemic and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.”

Zandi said he expects the U.S. economy will “skirt” a recession this year, though many economists believe a downturn will come.

Gus Faucher, PNC Financial Services’ chief economist, pegs the odds of a recession this year at 60%. But he said any downturn would be “mild” because “worker shortages will limit layoffs, consumer balance sheets are in great shape, the banking system is solid.”

Most people in the U.S. assume the nation is already in a recession, even if they personally feel fine.

The key force shaping the economy right now is the Federal Reserve, which has the mission of keeping prices stable and inflation at around 2%. Consumer prices jumped 6.5% last year.

To bring down inflation, the Fed has tried to slow down hiring and growth by raising its benchmark interest rate over the past year. When Biden delivered the State of the Union Address in 2022, the Fed’s benchmark rate was effectively near-zero. It’s now over 4.5%, the fastest increase in four decades, and Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said Wednesday that the rate will likely go higher.

The Fed rate increases mark a major reversal in how the economy operates.

Ever since the 2008 financial crisis, the U.S. central bank had held its benchmark rate near historic lows to bring back growth. That made it easier for tech start-ups because cheap money meant investors expected them to focus on growth instead of profits. Consumers got use to historically cheap rates for mortgages and auto loans.

The past year’s rate jumps produced a sudden whiplash. The stock market fell. Prominent tech companies such as Google and Microsoft recently announced layoffs. Even as computer chip companies began building new plants and crediting Biden’s policies, the world economy swung from a dearth of semiconductors to a glut. Mortgage rates initially doubled to over 7%, before falling back a bit to 6% last week. The big increase meant monthly payments became unaffordable for would-be homebuyers, forcing many to stay in rentals.

Carl Tannenbaum, chief economist for Northern Trust, said he is surprised that the rate increases have hit housing but not employment. Traditional models assumed that efforts to lower inflation would automatically include job losses. But when he talks to companies, most are reluctant to fire their workers because businesses had trouble finding skilled employees during the pandemic.

When the pandemic hit in 2020, the government aid was so overwhelming that a financial market crash turned into a rally. Biden tried to assure the country in 2021 that rising prices were a temporary inconvenience, only to find that inflation defined how many perceived his first two years as president. The expectation was that interest rate increases would ultimately lead to layoffs and higher unemployment, but hiring stayed robust in a sign that the economy is unmoored from traditional expectations.

If Biden faces a challenge on the economy, it might just be that no one really knows what could happen next.

“We’re in an environment where there is a lot of uncertainty,” said Gregory Daco, chief economist at EY- Parthenon. “The conflicting signals we keep getting on the economy make it very hard to get an accurate pulse.”

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