In April 2024, the officers of Casamance Healthcare Systems, Inc. (CHSI) traveled throughout the Ziguinchor region of Senegal with Kerry Jeffords, a needs-assessment representative from Project C.U.R.E. The trip had two primary purposes:
- To assess the impact of CHSI’s work to date with the Hôpital de la Paix de Ziguinchor.
- To study the needs of other hospitals in the region that could benefit from donations of medical equipment in the future.
Left to right: Louis Valentin (CHSI Director of Operations – Europe), Caroline Thiam (CHSI Treasurer), Kerry Jeffords (Project C.U.R.E. Needs Assessment Representative), Sona Sane (Ziguinchor Council 3rd Vice President), Alphonse Bassene (CHSI President & Chief Executive Officer), Mary Louise Dieme (CHSI Director of Operations – West Africa)
Impact Study: Hôpital de la Paix de Ziguinchor
The Hôpital de la Paix de Ziguinchor has received two containers of donated medical equipment from Project C.U.R.E. and CHSI, the first in 2021 and the second in 2022. The equipment, donated by U.S. hospitals, was collected by Project Cure, and CHSI raised the funds needed to ship the equipment to Senegal and transport it to the hospital. (Shipping costs for the first to containers came to $26,000 apiece, requiring a total of $52,000 in fundraising.)
The findings below are taken directly from the official report by Kerry Jeffords of Project C.U.R.E.:
- The containers were received positively by both the medical staff and the hospital’s administrative leaders, both for their contents, which they stated aligned strongly with the hospital’s Needs Assessment, and for the quality of the materials received.
- Quality of care was positively impacted by the donations in the two containers and because these were shared across the entire hospital, quality of care in all services benefitted.
- Before the donations, the hospital had had a shortage of beds, which historically meant that patients couldn’t be admitted. Today, many more patients can be treated locally rather than transferred to Dakar with the medical risks and costs of that lengthy trip. The bed donations similarly allowed the urgent care service to become much more functional.
- Quality of care improved because the donations included pieces of equipment like a mobile ultrasound and a mobile EKG, which allow the staff to move the equipment to a sick patient rather than moving the patient to the equipment.
- From a sustainability perspective, the container donations allowed the hospital to reallocate its budget, increase revenue, and increase staff. The budget reallocations were used to purchase equipment (e.g., an ultrasound), renovate the facility (e.g., physician offices and Imaging), increase the number of patients served (e.g., fund social cases), and purchase medication, providing it to patients free of charge.
- The donated containers have also had a positive impact on staff morale. Transfers to Dakar have decreased drastically and are now very rare, which is reported to be a relief to the specialists. In addition, training has become more advanced, which is satisfying to the staff. The hospital now does exams that it previously didn’t provide, which also benefits the medical students who learn to use more advanced equipment.
Assessing Needs: Other Medical Facilities in the Ziguinchor Region
The map above shows Senegal with its neighboring nations The Gambia and Guinea-Bissau. The CHSI team’s April 2024 assessment was conducted in the Ziguinchor region, indicated by the red circle. (Map by Google Maps.)
In the space of a week, the team traveled to the following hospitals and medical centers:
- Centre Hospitalier Régional de Ziguinchor
- Hôpital Silence de Ziguinchor
- Poste de Santé de Kaguitte
- Poste de Santé de Enampor
- Poste de Santé de Niaguis 2
- Poste de Santé de Adéane
- Poste de Santé de Boutoupa
- Centre Hospitalier Régional de Kolda
- Centre Hospitalier Régional Amadou Tidiane Ba de Sédhiou
At each hospital, Kerry Jeffords and the CHSI team met with doctors and hospital administrators to determine what medical equipment was most needed and what kinds of donations could have the greatest positive impact on local patients. The team also met with city and village leaders, government officials, and other key players in the region.
The detailed findings collected on this trip will inform future projects, starting with CHSI’s next container shipment, slated to benefit the Centre Hospitalier Régional de Ziguinchor.