PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center Foundation announces grant recipients
| News | Community | Heart Health | Safety | Women’s Health

The PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center Foundation recently announced the recipients of $165,177 in grant funding to support six projects in 2025 — the inaugural year of the campaign.
The funds will support programs that include safety-oriented community outreach, covering training and certification costs, and purchasing equipment, supplies and more.
“The funding comes from donors who said to use it where the need is greatest,” PeaceHealth Foundation chief philanthropy officer Jennifer Svihus said at a Dec. 11 ceremony at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend honoring the awardees.
The donors include community members, caregivers, and appreciative patients and their family members.
“They said, ‘I just want to make a gift because I’m grateful for the care I received,’” Svihus added.
The five grant committee members used goals to guide their funding process, looking for programs that would advance innovative processes or projects in support of the PeaceHealth mission; to build new partnerships with caregivers and providers; and to gather more examples of how donors can make an impact in healthcare locally through the Sacred Heart Medical Center Foundation.
“You have identified needs and things we can do better to prevent admission or readmission to the hospital,” foundation philanthropy officer Erika Swanson told the grant awardees at the ceremony.
Svihus said the Sacred Heart Medical Center Foundation Board has earmarked several hundred thousand to award annually.
“We would like to have many more departments and caregivers apply in the future,” she said.
The Foundation board and staff anticipate a new grant cycle announced to Sacred Heart and PeaceHealth Medical Group caregivers during late summer for award in 2026.
The grants awarded this year include:
$22,000 to the Trauma Program for outreach supplies, including bicycle helmets, bicycle lights, pill minders and more: Last year, the trauma program gave away 1,786 helmets to kids and adults; almost 400 sets of bike lights; and took part in nearly two dozen community outreach events as Jim Cole, trauma program educator, revitalized the program after a brief lull.
“This is going to be phenomenal,” Cole said of the grant. “We can plan for next year and know we have the supplies to reach out to the community.”
The program also offers stop-the-bleed classes for community members as well as clinic caregivers and additional trauma education programming.
$15,000 for Lymphedema Management Training/Certification: The funding will help address the shortage of caregivers with the expertise to help manage the limb swelling associated with lymphedema. The grant will cover the costs of training and certification for additional staff to help patients better manage their condition by providing them with tools and other resources to address their symptoms. As a result, the additional support will likely help patients reduce their reliance on the emergency department for treatment.
“These caregivers will provide structure to see those patients in our outpatient clinic,” said Miranda McLeod of the outpatient wound clinic. “It’s a big burden to pay for certification.”
“This can help grow our expertise,” added Swanson.
$30,000 for advanced safety and cardiac imaging training: With MRI safety being a top priority, providing advanced training to MRI technologists is crucial to keeping patients and caregivers safe while having an MRI. The hospital and local community also have a shortage of cardiac trained MRI technologists. Currently, patients have a six-to-eight-month wait locally to receive a cardiac MRI, with similar wait times at Portland facilities. The funding will cover caregivers’ training and travel costs.
“This grant will allow us to get our technologists trained and help us get through the backlog, which will extremely benefit the community and outlying areas,” said Adam Mellott, director of imaging services.
$24,000 for blood pressure monitoring kits for pre- and post-partum mothers: One in five pregnant Sacred Heart patients have a hypertension diagnosis, said Danica Stiles, manager of the mother/baby unit. The funds will allow for the purchase of at-home blood pressure cuffs so patients can more closely monitor their blood pressure on their own. It piggybacks on a program the mother/baby unit launched last summer that issues blue bracelets to these patients to ensure caregivers immediately identify their condition when they present for care.
“Not everyone can afford a blood pressure cuff unit at home,” said Stiles, adding that insurance doesn’t always cover the costs, either. “This will get blood pressure cuff units for home use for every blue-band patient.”
$50,000 teen cardiovascular health promotion initiative: This funding will help reestablish and expand a heart screening program for teenagers that was disrupted by the pandemic. The grant will be used to relaunch the program at North Eugene High School and develop it into an overall teen health initiative, providing additional screening, support and care options that students will be able to access during school hours.
“We’re going to bring in other programs to go and address important teen health heart topics,” said one of the OHVI organizers.
The funding also will be used to purchase and provide automated external defibrillators in the community, focusing on sites where community youth sports are held.
$24,177 for virtual reality training equipment for first responders and rural emergency departments: These funds will be used to purchase virtual reality goggles and other equipment that will be distributed to first responders and emergency departments in rural communities to use in training simulations. The equipment gives first responders a point of view that makes them feel as if they were immersed in the situation.
“We can offer different scenarios and bring in scenarios you might not see very often to different places,” said Chris Martin, RN, the tele-stroke program coordinator who is leading the effort.
The scenarios could include incidents involving one to dozens of patients. As many as 100 caregivers can simultaneously take part in an event, simulating the collaboration and communication required to manage a major catastrophe or incident.
Caregivers can learn more about caregiver giving and payroll deductions by going to: Join the PeaceHealth Care Squad! | PeaceHealth.
Community members can donate to the foundation’s Area of Greatest Need Fund by visiting: Sacred Heart Medical Center Foundation | PeaceHealth.