Community Health Center AMHE-GRAHN
of
City of knowledge
Génipailler, Milot, Haïti
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AMHE has partnered with GRAHN (Groupe de Réflexion et d’Action pour une Haïti Nouvelle) to create a Community Health Care Center. GRAHN is the first Haitian think-tank and it plays a dual role of theory and implementation; it was created one week after the earthquake with the stated purpose of helping to solve some of the country’s problems using a nonpartisan approach. This type of philosophy is similar to AMHE’s except we narrowly focus on health matters.
The AMHE-GRAHN Community Health Care Center project is part of a larger social and economic development plan: The Innovation Pole of the Greater North (PIGraN)-City of Knowledge. As a matter of fact, on January 13, 2016, GRAHN broke ground for The City of Knowledge, that will be erected on a tract of 70 acres, located at Génipailler, not far from the International airport of Cap-Haïtien, Haïti’s second largest city. It is the third largest municipal district of Milot metropolitan area with a quarter of the total population 30,530. Atthe present, there doesn’t exist any health care center or any pharmacy in Génipailler.
The AMHE-GRAHN Community Health Care Center,will be a center of excellence with a mission to provide health care services fulfilling the priorities and needs of the Génipaillerpopulationand the surrounding areas.Formation of a local cadre and education of the larger population about a conscious participation and handling of their health will be at the heart of a strategy of sensible intervention. With this center, we intend to create at Génipailler a renowned operation for its outstanding health care delivery in Primary Care and also by the professionalism of care providers.This will be the first center in the area to serve a destitute population according to a humane and shared decision approach to improve the patient’s quality of life and welfare. The order of priorities for intervention: Primary Care, Mental Health, Infectious Diseases, Eye Care, Cardiovascular Diseases, Perinatal Care and mostly Preventive Care.At its core, it is an innovative concept; it will be useful to the region and the country, insofar as it attempts to offer at reasonable cost health care services of high quality not readily, if at all, available locally.
One of the major features of AMHE-GRAHN Community Health Care Centersis the use of Information Technology and Communication (ITC) in healthcare delivery.Wiring with fiber optic cablewill be the norm, giving access to high-speed Internet access and videoconferencing. This will allow the implementation of Telemedicine. AMHE and GRAHN each counts among its midst a large number of health care professionals that can provide remote support to others on the ground at the Community Health Care Center. The Association of Nurses and Nurse’s Aides of Montreal, who are also GRAHN members, will alsowill help this effort. Telemedicine will offer the whole spectrum: expertise, medicalsurveillance and assistance at a distance.
Considering the gradual progress of fund raising, the Center will be built in a maximum of three phases over a three-year span at most. Construction has already startedfor the first phase. It should have an area of 6000 square feet.Sustainability will be a major focus. A prepaid health plan will be offered to the population to minimize expenses for a fixed set of services on a yearly basis.
The AMHE-GRAHN Community Health Care Center willpay dividends both for the local population and the surrounding communal sections in terms of wide choice of primary services available. As proof, The Family Medicine Unit will provide care to children and adults, including cardiovascular and transmissible diseases. The Perinatal Unit will provide pre and postnatal services and family planning while at the same time paying special attention to the screening of cervical and breast cancer. To be more specific, we will try to enhance pregnant females’ and local children’stotal carein order to reduce both maternal and newborn mortality.
For transmissible diseases, we expect to make a significant reduction in the morbidity and mortality of HIV and related complications. Short term, we are aiming for 25% increase in screening for HIV in Génipaillerwhile taking care of at least 90% of new cases of HIV; a 25% increase in screening for syphilis and tuberculosis, to treat 100 % of new syphilis cases, 50 % of new cases of tuberculosis under ambulatory supervised care. Long term, we are aiming at a cure rate oftuberculosis greater than90 %, a reduction of the prevalence of HIV to less than 3 % and the mortality rate of infectious diseases by at least 50 %.
As far as eye care and mental care, suffice it to mention itsalmost absent availability within metropolitan Milot.The Eye Care Unit will deliver both basic and advanced care to ultimately become a reference center within the Greater North.The Mental Health Unit will handle outpatient care not readily available.
Finally in terms of economic dividends, a minimum of 40 jobs will be created by the center offering relief from a poverty-ridden region.Toward that end,the AMHE-GRAHN Community Health Care Center follows the global objective of the PIGraN – City of Knowledge projectthat wants to reduce poverty by creating wealth and growth. PIGraN intends to spin off 50 midsize enterprises resulting in the creation of 20,000 straight jobs over a 10 period in the region. It is a truism that education, health and economics make up the three pillars of durable development of nations; can we duplicate this?