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Clinic Launch Series: Part 1 of 5- Transforming the Pharmacy

Dear Friends,

Last week, we announced that C2C will officially open the doors of a new clinic in Sinek, northern Haiti, next month. This will be the 4th clinic in our growing network of community clinics. The community of nearly 20,000 lacks access to reliable, high-quality medical services. Despite the best efforts of the government to staff and equip a public clinic in Sinek, there simply isn’t enough public funding to pay salaries, secure the supply chain, or provide electricity or running water. C2C is proud to partner with the Haitian government to give the Sinek clinic a “new life” and to serve the community in perpetuity.

Step One: Guarantee a reliable supply chain for essential medicines. 

Under government management, the Sinek clinic is able to stock only 6 to 8 different medicines and regularly experiences stock-outs because of failures up the supply chain. Under C2C’s model, the Sinek clinic will stock over 35 medicines. Reliability is a fundamental brand attribute of C2C clinics: we promise our patients that the medicine they need will always be in stock. We’ve developed an inventory and supply chain system that leverages efficiencies across the clinic network.

See our “before and after” photos below! The transformation of the Sinek pharmacy is well underway and we cannot wait to welcome our first patients to the revitalized public clinic in April.

BEFORE:
   

AFTER:

Stay tuned as we bring you more information next week about how the clinic is transforming. But first, a CALL TO ACTION! We would appreciate if you could take just a moment to do the following:

  1.   Follow us on social media:
    Facebook 
    Twitter
    LinkedIn
  2.  Forward this email to a friend and ask them to follow C2C! 

We want to build our community of supporters and advocates far and wide so that the community of Sinek and the new clinic know that we are following their success!

 

This entry was posted on by Racha Yehia.

Clinic Launch Series: Part 5 of 5- Grand Opening of the New Clinic!

 

Dear Friends,

After several months of planning and hard work, we are excited to announce that the newly renovated C2C Sinek clinic is finally open to the public! The opening of this clinic marks an important milestone in Haiti’s healthcare sector.

While this is the 4th clinic in C2C’s growing network, it is the first clinic re-opening project as part of a new public-private partnership (PPP) strategy to rehabilitate underperforming government clinics across the country. This innovative partnership with Haiti’s government allows C2C to identify flagging public clinics and give them a “new life” of operational excellence and health impact.

Step Five: Strengthen the relationship between the clinic and Sinek community to effectively address and meet community needs

 


Dr. Jasmin addressing the community members and staff at new Sinek clinic grand opening

 

In an effort to ensure a smooth transition at Sinek, we invited the community to attend the grand opening ceremony last week. Many community members were in attendance, as well as local government leaders and the Director of the Northern Department at the Haitian Ministry of Health, Dr. Ernst-Robert Jasmin. All attendees got the opportunity to take a tour of the clinic and learn about its new and wide-ranging services. In his opening remarks, Dr. Jasmin said:

“When the Ministry of Health embarked on this partnership with C2C, I was happy to learn that the Sinek clinic would get a second chance to serve the community here. Prior to the transformation, the pharmacy did not carry many medications and the lab didn’t have electricity or equipment. I am so pleased to see not only the physical transformation of the clinic but that this partnership gives hope to other clinics that are also struggling. This is something that can be replicated not only in the northern part of the country, but throughout Haiti.” 

We began the journey to transform the Sinek clinic by leveraging the assets the Ministry of Health already had in place. While a clinic building already stood at the site, its infrastructure was in very poor condition. As construction got underway to ensure a proper foundation, we also trained newly-hired and current staff members to standardize clinic operations and to integrate electronic medical records at Sinek.


The “before” and “after” photos (below) illustrate the transformation process of the Sinek clinic: 

 

Clinic Renovation
 

BEFOREDespite the best efforts of the government to staff and equip the clinic,
there simply isn’t enough public funding to pay salaries, secure the supply chain,
or provide electricity or running water.
AFTER: As C2C took over this flagging public clinic, we mitigated structural and
many other physical issues to the existing site. The renovation process has already
given the clinic a “new life”.

 

Patient Waiting Area
 

BEFORE: Sinek is a rural community with a population living below Haiti’s poverty
line (less than $2/day). They lack access to basic goods and services, like clean
water and reliable healthcare.
AFTER: By renovating the clinic, such as the patient waiting area, we are working
hard to ensure that this new and improved Sinek clinic will be a hub for local
families and meet their health needs.

 

Pharmacy

 

BEFORE: Under government management, the clinic regularly
experienced stock-outs because of failures up the supply chain.
AFTER: Under C2C’s model, we guarantee a reliable supply chain to
ensure that the pharmacy is always fully-stocked with essential meds.

 

Laboratory
 
BEFORE                                        AFTER

 

Consultation Room

 
BEFORE                                          AFTER


Stay tuned as we bring you more news about the clinic and patient stories in the coming months. But first, we need your help in getting the word out about our first PPP clinic opening! if you could take just a moment to do the following:

  1. Follow us on social media: Facebook ,Twitter,  LinkedIn
  2.  Forward this email to a friend or family member & ask them to follow C2C! 

We want to build our community of supporters and advocates far and wide so that the community of Sinek and the new clinic know that we are following their success!

 

This entry was posted on by Racha Yehia.

Clinic Launch Series: Part 2 of 5- Integrating Electronic Medical Records

As we prepare the new clinic for opening day, C2C is overhauling how patient data is captured and analyzed so that we can offer optimal patient care. Electronic medical records allow us to monitor all aspects of treatment efficacy, increase our ability to support good health over time, and ensure that the sickest and most vulnerable patients receive active follow-up.

Step Two: Investing in systems that support high-quality, long-term care for our patients. 

C2C clinics offer the highest standard of patient care through our customized electronic medical record (EMR) system. Developed in collaboration with the Vecna Cares Charitable Trust, the EMR systems capture all aspects of patient clinical care, doctor-patient interaction, demographic data, diagnoses, prescriptions, and follow-up. Our tablet-based system fosters optimal patient flow at the clinic day-to-day, as patients travel from registration to consultation, to the laboratory and the pharmacy.

Very few medical facilities in Haiti have EMR systems, and we consider this capacity to be crucial to our success. Not only can we focus on each individual’s health trajectory, but we can monitor population health and coordinate effectively with the Haitian Ministry of Health. Our data is our enduring connection with our patients and is the backbone of responsive, patient-centered care.

At Sinek, you can see the “before” photo (below) shows how patient medical records used to be kept. The “after” photos show how our medical staff can quickly and easily capture patient data on tablets and focus, instead, on the patient-clinician interaction.

BEFORE:
AFTER:
 

 

Stay tuned as we bring you more information next week about how the clinic is transforming. But first, a CALL TO ACTION! We would appreciate if you could take just a moment to do the following:

  1.   Follow us on social media:
    Facebook 
    Twitter
    LinkedIn
  2.  Forward this email to a friend and ask them to follow C2C! 

We want to build our community of supporters and advocates far and wide so that the community of Sinek and the new clinic know that we are following their success!

 

This entry was posted on by Racha Yehia.

Clinic Launch Series: Part 1 of 5- Transforming the Pharmacy

Last week, we announced that C2C will officially open the doors of a new clinic in Sinek, northern Haiti, next month. This will be the 4th clinic in our growing network of community clinics. The community of nearly 20,000 lacks access to reliable, high-quality medical services. Despite the best efforts of the government to staff and equip a public clinic in Sinek, there simply isn’t enough public funding to pay salaries, secure the supply chain, or provide electricity or running water. C2C is proud to partner with the Haitian government to give the Sinek clinic a “new life” and to serve the community in perpetuity.

Step One: Guarantee a reliable supply chain for essential medicines. 

Under government management, the Sinek clinic is able to stock only 6 to 8 different medicines and regularly experiences stock-outs because of failures up the supply chain. Under C2C’s model, the Sinek clinic will stock over 35 medicines. Reliability is a fundamental brand attribute of C2C clinics: we promise our patients that the medicine they need will always be in stock. We’ve developed an inventory and supply chain system that leverages efficiencies across the clinic network.

See our “before and after” photos below! The transformation of the Sinek pharmacy is well underway and we cannot wait to welcome our first patients to the revitalized public clinic in April.

BEFORE:
   

AFTER:

Stay tuned as we bring you more information next week about how the clinic is transforming. But first, a CALL TO ACTION! We would appreciate if you could take just a moment to do the following:

  1.   Follow us on social media:
    Facebook 
    Twitter
    LinkedIn
  2.  Forward this email to a friend and ask them to follow C2C! 

We want to build our community of supporters and advocates far and wide so that the community of Sinek and the new clinic know that we are following their success!

 

This entry was posted on by Racha Yehia.

New C2C Clinic Site Opening in Haiti!

In just a few short weeks, C2C will officially open the doors of a new clinic in the community of Sinek, in northern Haiti. This is the 4th clinic in C2C’s growing network and we are working hard to ensure that it will meet the health needs of local families. This clinic isn’t starting from scratch; we’re working in partnership with Haiti’s government to rehabilitate flagging public clinics and give them a “new life” of operational excellence and health impact.

In a special 5-part email series leading up to the opening, we will feature the Sinek clinic to bring you information about how the clinic is transforming, how the extraordinary clinical staff are preparing to re-open to patients, and how we have strengthened the supply chain and expanded home-based services.

Join us as the clinic gets ready for opening day. But first, a CALL TO ACTION! We would appreciate if you could take just a moment to do the following:

  1.   Follow us on social media:
    Facebook 
    Twitter
    LinkedIn
  2.  Share this with a friend and ask them to follow C2C! 

We want to build our community of supporters and advocates far and wide so that the community of Sinek and the new clinic know that we are following their success!

 

This entry was posted on by Racha Yehia.

Our 2017 Annual Report is Here!

We are excited to share C2C’s 2017 Annual Report with you. The report highlights key achievements from the past year, including our new partnership with Haiti’s Ministry of Health, our expanding clinic network, and the growing scope of our services to poor and low-income communities in Haiti.

The year ahead is ambitious: we’ll double the size of our service delivery footprint in Haiti and we’re expanding our community health focus to ensure positive clinical outcomes for our patients. We value your comments, questions, and input about our work, and welcome you to contact us with feedback!

We would be grateful if you would share this Annual Report with friends and please follow us on TwitterLinkedIn or Facebook.

This entry was posted on by Racha Yehia.

C2C brings prenatal care to expectant mothers at home

In addition to primary care, C2C has been delivering life-saving medical care to pregnant women in Haiti for over seven years. The statistics are shocking: Haiti has the highest maternal rate in the western hemisphere. 1 in 285 births will result in a woman’s death, while less than 50% of deliveries are attended by a skilled birth attendant. In rural Haiti, medical care is not accessible by the general population and women often receive no prenatal care leading up to delivery. If a problem occurs during pregnancy or delivery, mother and baby often die during labor as a result of no medical attention.

We have treated thousands of expectant women at our clinics, but the truth is: medical care alone is not enough. To ensure that women and their newborns have the care they need, we’ve developed a transformational model to attack the maternal and infant mortality crisis in Haiti by focusing on behavior change. This proposed model scaffolds women and families to access high-­quality care and addresses demand-side barriers to care­-seeking, a neglected area of study. We came up with a unique and powerful approach by paring our clinical care with social support for vulnerable families at the household level, which entails visiting expectant mothers at their home during their pregnancy and after giving birth.

Our Maternal Health Agents (MHA) lead these visits and focus mostly on education and counseling. The MHAs cover many different topics that vary from danger signs during pregnancy, safe birth options, nutrition, breastfeeding, and the importance of immunizations. They also keep an eye out for different symptoms that could indicate problems in the pregnancy by checking blood pressure and temperature.

Recently, one of our MHAs visited Shedeline, who is 19 years old and pregnant for the first time. Shedeline lives in a remote mountain area, far from C2C’s clinic in Acul du Nord. During the home visit, she has the opportunity to ask a lot of questions which helped her feel less nervous about pregnancy and more prepared to give birth.

 

MHA conducts a home visit with Shedeline, who is the first trimester of her first pregnancy

Home visits are guided by a tablet-based survey to capture data on patient responses and guide the quality of the interaction between mother and MHA

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks to our partners Vitamin Angels, all the pregnant and lactating women that visit our clinics receive prenatal vitamins that will help them prevent anemia during pregnancy and make sure their baby gets the nutrients that are essential for healthy development.

Our journey with Shedeline doesn’t end here. We will be checking in with her frequently through phone calls and home-visits prior to and after delivery to encourage adherence to the birth plan established during the first visit.

This 18-month program, funded by Grand Challenges Canada, innovates a model for ‘wraparound’ maternal and newborn care, offering a complete protocol of antenatal care, home-based and group-based education, robust postpartum care, as well as newborn care, including vaccinations, through baby’s first year. Our goal is to enroll at least 1,000 women and to meticulously track health outcomes to understand if and how the home-based behavior change intervention improves key metrics such as a complete prenatal regimen, breastfeeding adherence, pediatric care-seeking, infant nutrition and growth.

 

 

This entry was posted on by Racha Yehia.

C2C selected as Henry Schein Cares Medalist

We’re excited to announce that C2C has been selected as a finalist for the Henry Schein Cares Medal for excellence in expanding access to health care for the underserved!

The Henry Schein Cares Medal is an initiative of Henry Schein Cares, the company’s global corporate social responsibility program. The award is given to nonprofit organizations from the fields of oral health, animal health, and medicine that demonstrate excellence by helping to increase access to care in underserved communities around the world.

“Throughout our company’s history, we at Henry Schein have been guided by the principle that everyone, regardless of their economic standing or personal circumstances, deserves quality health care,” said Stanley M. Bergman, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Henry Schein.

C2C shares Henry Schein’s commitment to serving communities in need and we honored to be recognized for the work we do in bringing low-cost, high-quality healthcare to the people of Haiti.

 

Learn more about the Henry Schein Cares Medal:

This entry was posted on by Racha Yehia.

An Exciting Start to 2018!

I am very excited to wish you a Happy New Year and to introduce myself to the C2C community of friends and supporters.
My name is Dr. Samuel Bernard and I recently joined the C2C team last month as the Chief Operating Officer. I completed my medical degree at the Faculté de Médecine et de Pharmacie at the State University of Haiti in 2009 and have completed additional health management studies at Montreal University. Most recently, I served as the Medical Director of the St. Boniface Foundation in southern Haiti.

 

I am thrilled to join the C2C team in Cap Haitien at this exciting time of growth and expansion. In 2018, we will open 3 new clinics in partnership with the Haitian Ministry of Health, doubling the size of the C2C network in the northern region. Both personally and professionally, I am a believer in C2C’s bold approach: providing the highest quality medical care at affordable prices.

In my country, we need to address urgent health financing challenges. Free care for every citizen, forever, just isn’t feasible and isn’t building the long-term economy. C2C’s is a different approach, we know that. But isn’t it exciting to think: What if a community clinic were a financially sustainable endeavor, delivering medical care today and in perpetuity? What if it didn’t have to rely on aid funding year after year? What if we built a solid economic foundation for the healthcare system in Haiti, rather than patching the holes?

As a physician, originally from Cap Haitien, I am passionate about returning to my home region to make a contribution to improving the health and wellness of people in northern Haiti. Over the past month, I’ve been rolling up my sleeves to get to know the communities we serve, family by family.

I am energized about what this year holds for C2C and invite you to join me in anticipating the achievements you will see us reach as the year unfolds!

Yours truly,

Dr. Samuel Bernard
Chief Operating Officer, C2C

This entry was posted on by Racha Yehia.

Make a Difference This Holiday Season: Gift a Life

This holiday season, we are launching a new campaign to support the life-saving medical care we deliver to pregnant women and their babies in Haiti. It was our founding vision and motivation to ensure that poor women have access to the health services they need to have healthy pregnancies and thriving babies.

The Gift a Life campaign will support over 1,200 women through the journey of safe pregnancy and provide them with: a complete protocol of prenatal care, home-based and group-based education, robust postpartum care, and newborn care (including vaccinations) through baby’s first year.

 

 

How can you help?

You can donate to this campaign directly to give mothers and babies a healthy start in life.

Share this campaign with a friend, family member or colleague, and introduce them to this life-saving program.

Your support will make a real, lasting impact in the lives of so many vulnerable families. We look forward to sharing stories of health and success of the program as mothers and babies thrive in 2018.

 

This entry was posted on by Racha Yehia.