There are only two weeks left for a Minnesota community hospital to win a million-dollar MRI system in a national online contest, and a medical facility in Ely appears to have the only realistic chance of taking the prize.

When I first wrote about Siemens Medical Solutions’ Win an MRI contest several weeks ago, seven eligible hospitals in Minnesota were among nearly 100 nationwide that had entered their self-produced video clips showing why they should win the MRI, an expensive piece of equipment that many small health facilities can’t afford. But with a Dec. 31 voting deadline looming, only Ely-Bloomenson Community Hospital in Ely is in the top 10. It has a little more than 103,000 votes so far–good enough for fourth place but far behind the No. 1 vote-getter, Sumter Regional Hospital in Americus, Ga., which has more than 210,000 votes.  

An Ely supporter named Betsy emailed me to say that, at this stage of the contest, even its Minnesota rivals have offered to cast their votes for Ely’s video, which parodies an episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition. “We know time is running out and we are working hard to find another 100,000 votes to move us into first, but I think that’s very possible,” Betsy said.

If you want to vote in the contest, visit the Win an MRI site. Votes are limited to one per computer per day, so visit the site now and throughout the holidays to make the biggest impact.

This entry was posted on Monday, December 17th, 2007 at 2:24 pm and is filed under Internet. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.