Image Credit: RIH Foundation

By James Peters

Hospital Donation

RIH laboratory gets $90,000 infusion from philanthropist Ken Lepin

Nov 12, 2020 | 1:56 PM

KAMLOOPS — Noted Kamloops philanthropist Ken Lepin has made another generous donation, this time to the Royal Inland Hospital Foundation.

According to a news release, the local businessman has donated $90,000 to the RIH Foudnation to purchase an Isoplater, an instrument used the hospital’s laboratory. The lab has an old Isoplater, but hospital officials say they can’t source parts or service for it anymore.

“When [the old machine] broke down for good several months ago, we were in a bind as we had to resort to doing cultures by hand, which is really time consuming,” said RIH Microbiology Operations Supervisor Deb Eckert.

The Foundation describes the Isoplater as “a sophisticated petri dish streaking instrument that is designed to provide safe and highly reproducible streaking of patient sample on culture media.” It is used 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week in the lab.

Ken Lepin (Image Credit: RIH Foundation)

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Lepin says this donation was fuelled by his competitive nature.

“I am somewhat competitive, and when another city gets all the new lab equipment and expects our lab work to go there, I say NO. We will do it here and get the results in a matter of hours,” Lepin says in the release.

Over the course of 25 years, Lepin has donated more than $1 million tot he RIH Foundation for various projects and equipment.