A New Priority

As current reality settles in at HSC, it is clear that the old ways of maintaining inventory and supplies will not jibe with the growing demand and complexity of services provided. I wrote of our difficulties during the immediate post quake period, when truckloads of supplies and equipment would arrive unannounced and a scramble to prioritize and store what we needed ensued. We also found that in many cases, hospitals, despite best intentions, had sent broken, outdated, and inoperative equipment. We also relied on an open barter system with surrounding facilities, without any documentation, but with an eye toward meeting the needs of the patients.



During my most recent visit, I was pleased to see a large concrete slab had been poured next to the mission house. I remember the local men clearing the land by hand and I learned that the pouring itself took place by the wheel barrel well into the night. The results will be the start of a large, computerized and climate controlled warehouse. And as fate would have it, my professional and humanitarian goals would again cross.
As part of my second year at HSPH, I will be working through a practicum - generation a business plan, optimizing an operation, or launching a service line. Given my current career transition, I did not have a home institution, but was welcomed by my colleagues at CRUDEM to join the effort and contribute to the process. Much had been done and a contract developed with Steve Bardos and the Humanitarian Software Foundation, to bring bar coding and inventory control to both the hospital and pharmacy. I am currently coordinating with my advisor an appropriate role in this complex process and will be bringing you new stories of how we will meet the needs of our patients and support the mission of the organization.



So the enclosed pictures may not be as heartwarming as the children I have cared for, but I am thrilled that we will be able to provide an oasis of functioning infrastructure in a country that has so little.