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Dean donates equipment from former clinic

JANESVILLE — The former Dean Riverview Clinic in Janesville sits empty now, but the equipment, furniture and other items that were in the health clinic are scattered around the region—and as far away as Uganda.

The new Dean Clinic-Janesville East on Racine Street opened in January with all new equipment and furniture, leaving much of the former clinic intact, Dean spokesman Dan Fredricks said.

After medical equipment that could be used at other Dean facilities was moved, more than $50,000 in remaining items was donated to nonprofit organizations and a hospital in Uganda where local doctors volunteer.

The person who took staff from the YWCA of Rock County through the available items was "almost apologetic about a nick in the desks," YWCA Executive Director Allison Hokinson said.

"This is gold to us," she said.

The Y received desks, bookcases, furniture, artwork and appliances for its transitional living program—"stuff that is not so easy to spend money on when you've got other needs," Hokinson said.

It was perfect timing because the Y is redoing some of its spaces for new programming, she said.

"We didn't have anything like that before, so that was a huge donation to us," she said.

Procedure lights and other equipment went to St. Francis Hospital in Buluba, Uganda. Dean Dr. William Squires has volunteered at the hospital each of the last four years through the Hope Institute of Uganda. This February, Kari Wyss, a vascular specialist at Dean, went with Squires.

"They have nothing," she said.

In one week she assisted Squires on 24 surgeries in the hospital's one operating room, where up to five surgeries were going on at once.

"They'll appreciate anything and everything," she said.

Dean's donations were combined in a container for shipping with donations from Edgerton Hospital and Health Services, which also recently opened a new hospital and donated its old items.

"The timing was right for a lot of people," Fredricks said.

Other items also went to Open Arms, a new clinic in Elkhorn, he said.

HealthNet of Rock County has received medical equipment and office items from Dean over the years, Executive Director Jean Randles said. The latest donations included waiting room and office chairs and color-coded flags for outside medical rooms.

"It allows us to expand the services we provide and enhance those services," she said.