Every year, VNA’s clinical staff make thousands of visits to patients in their homes. This patient care is at the heart of everything VNA does, but there is a lot that goes into making every visit to a patient’s home possible. VNA’s employs more than 100 staff members for direct patient care and administrative roles. It takes communication and coordination between all of these staff members to keep the organization operating at maximum capacity. Technology plays an important role in connecting these staff members and allowing them to do their jobs.
When so much relies on technology, the threat of a 14-year-old server failing is a serious concern. It is especially alarming when email, electronic charting, IT support, backups, network management and security are all reliant on that server. With the server’s status leaving VNA in a precarious position, it was important to replace it quickly. In total, replacing the server would cost nearly $16,000 for hardware and licensing. In these challenging times, VNA doesn’t have extra operating funds for such an expense so the organization turned to the community. VNA wrote a grant to the Douglas County Community Foundation (DCCF) for nearly $10,000 to fund the purchase of the hardware for the server and requested the remaining funds required for licensing from donors.
Fortunately, the local community continues to provide VNA with tremendous support. DCCF fully funded VNA’s grant request and VNA’s donors raised more than enough to ensure that VNA was able to purchase all of the necessary licensing. VNA’s IT experts from DPI purchased and setup the new server as soon as the funds were available to prevent any potential issues that could have been caused if the old server failed. VNA is fortunate to have such wonderful support from the community, which is vital for any not-for-profit, but especially for a home care organization. It is this dedicated support that has allowed VNA to care for those in the community needing in-home health care for the last 56 years.
Thank you to DCCF and to VNA’s donors for all of your contributions to this project and VNA’s continued operation!