Critical Care Unit Program
Context and Background
Justinian University Hospital (JUH) is the second largest hospital in the country. It is located in Cap-Haitien and serves a population of approximately 825,000, the entire northern population of the country. The 250-bed, government run teaching hospital has an emergency room to treat daily situations, but was lacking a facility to treat traumas and critical care patients. All major traumas could only be treated in the capital, hundreds of miles away. In 2011, MASHAV built a new Critical Care and Trauma Center (CCT) at JUH, and over the next several years, JHI will send regularly scheduled missions of volunteer healthcare professionals to provide advanced training and support to personnel and residents of JUH and its new CCT.
In January 2010, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck Haiti and caused extensive damage, especially in the capital city of Port-Au-Prince. Hundreds of international organizations offered aid, focused primarily in the capital, but very little was done to help in the outlying areas. In 2011, The Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ Agency for International Development (known by the acronym MASHAV) built and donated a Critical Care Unit (CCU) at JUH. JHI has partnered with MASHAV, Konbit Santé (a local NGO that supports the hospital), and the staff of JUH in a collaborative effort to establish the CCU as a regional facility capable of providing high quality care based on international best practices.
Problem and Need
In order for the CCU at JUH to provide high quality care, there needs to be a strong core of highly trained and capable medical professionals running the unit. Medical Universities in Haiti do not currently offer specialty training in Emergency and Critical Care Medicine. In addition, hospital administrators and physicians have neither the training nor the experience in operating a Critical Care Unit. The hospital also needs help in leadership development, as well as the basic financial support to get the unit up and running, and eventually profitable enough to become self-sustaining.
Mission participants are responsible for the cost of airfare to and from the country of service, current passport (and visa if necessary) and a mission fee paid directly to JHI before the mission. These costs are all tax-deductible. JHI covers all ground costs, including ground transportation, lodging, meals, translators, guides, and cultural activities.
Program Design
JHI has formed a consortium of local and international partners that will help the CCU, and by extension all of JUH, to operate at the highest levels possible. Consortium partners will contribute expertise and resources to develop programs for leadership development and financial support for the core staff, continuing medical education by both direct and distance learning, as well as needs identification and provision of durable and disposable medical equipment that will allow the CCU at JUH to expand its services and begin to generate revenue. One of JHI’s roles in this partnership is to provide continuing medical education for the CCU staff through both didactic lectures and hands-on, bed-side training. JHI will send teams of volunteers on a quarterly basis to provide training to the Emergency Room and CCU physicians, nurses and staff. In addition, the JHI Haiti Coordinator will travel to JUH on a monthly basis to provide support and expertise on the overall functioning of the CCU. JHI anticipates a program duration of three years, by which time the CCU will be functional and self-sustaining.
We are currently recruiting for this program
Volunteers specializing in Emergency and Trauma Medicine are needed.
A typical Haiti mission lasts one week. Each volunteer will deliver one to two lectures per day, with the remainder of the day spent working hands-on with interns, residents, and practicing physicians in the CCU. Volunteers are responsible for their airfare to and from Miami, FL and a $1500 mission fee. JHI takes care of airfare from Miami to Cap-Hatien, and hotel and living expenses. Missions FY2013 missions are scheduled for: August & December 2012, and March & June 2012. (See Missions Calendar for exact dates.)
Apply for a mission
To apply for a program please email your CV to: volunteers@jhiatlanta.org. You can either submit an online application, or download an application form (pdf) and email it to: volunteers@jhiatlanta.org.
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