CEO Blog

HOPE and Mississippi’s Highest Officials

Reflect on the Past, Look to the Future

Labels: United States

On our first day in the Delta, I also took time out to meet with some of Mississippi’s most important state leaders.

I had a breakfast meeting with Mississippi’s Lieutenant Governor, Phil Bryant. Later, I met with a few of the state legislators including Rep. Willie Bailey, Rep. David Norquist and State Senator, Willie Simmons. And I also had the honor of meeting with Governor Haley Barbour at his office in the Capitol building.

At each of these meetings, we looked back on Project HOPE’s health care and humanitarian assistance response in Mississippi following Hurricane Katrina and discussed HOPE’s current visit to the Delta to assess a possible partnership with the Delta Health Alliance.

The state representatives, Lieutenant Governor Bryant and Governor Barbour all expressed their gratitude for the help Project HOPE provided in the aftermath of Katrina, which included medical volunteers, donated medicines and supplies, as well as the creation of the Moss Point Clinic, a now permanent medical facility serving more than 8,000 patients a year. Each expressed interest in learning more about possible collaborations between the Delta Health Alliance and Project HOPE that would bring better health to the men, women and children of Mississippi’s Delta.

John

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Health in the Delta Shows Promise, But Needs are Still Great

Labels: United States

It is appropriate that it was Health Awareness Day in Mississippi, as the HOPE team began our visits to several of the health programs administered by the Delta Health Alliance (DHA.)

Our day started out at the DHA eICU Center at University of Mississippi Health Care. And, what a start to the day it was! The eICU Center uses seasoned intensive care unit nurses to monitor ICU patients in hospitals miles away with the help of a sophisticated computer system and two-way audio and video cameras.

Nora Goodson, a registered nurse with more than 20 years of experience, is one of the 16 nurses who work at the Center. At her post, surrounded by six computer monitors, she helps care for up to 30 patients, even though she is miles away from the nearest hospital. She can track a patient’s vital signs, view x-rays, review laboratory results and communicate with the on-site nurses while at her station in Jackson.

Just open a year, the eICU Center is showing promising results with reductions in mortality rates and shorter hospital stays. With support of the DHA, plans are underway to expand the program in the Mississippi Delta in the next couple of months.

From this example of innovative clinical care, we next visited an example of community-based care now making an impact on health in the Delta. The Delta Pharmacy Patient Care Management Services program is dedicated to lowering the high rate of diabetes and hypertension in this region of Mississippi through patient education. The program in Yazoo City is using community clinics and pharmacies as locations for the review of patient histories, medication adherence and serves as a resource to educate patients on illnesses and lifestyle changes they can make to live healthier lives.

There I met Bianca Martin, the young mother of 3-month-old Robert. Since hypertension was a pressing issue for her, she was grateful for the health education and awareness that will help her and her baby live healthier lives.

Later, we traveled to a DHA 21st Century Clinic in Belzoni, where community health workers are insuring patients adhere to their treatment protocols and understand their medication needs with both in-clinic patient education programs and home visits.

At every location we visited, we witnessed dedicated medical professionals using innovative programs to not only treat patients, but to help prevent the high rates of chronic disease that often go untreated in the Delta.

With all this progress, there is still great need. Mississippi is the fourth most rural state in the country, with the Mississippi Delta region ranking among the poorest areas nationwide. The needs include more medications and equipment, more medical professionals and more health outreach programs to reach the men, women and children living in remote areas of the Delta.

John

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Exploring Opportunites for Health Care and Health Education Progams...Here at Home

Labels: United States

Project HOPE’s health education and humanitarian assistance programs have been saving lives around the world for more than 52 years. What you may not realize, is that our important work also includes health care and education programs right here in the United States.

Here are just a few examples.

As early as 1969, HOPE trained community health assistants and established a nursing degree program in Laredo, Texas to increase access to health care services and improve health care in the region.

In 1981, HOPE began publishing Health Affairs, now the leading journal of health policy thought and research. The Washington Post, has called Health Affairs the bible of health policy.

And when disaster stuck the Gulf Coast following Hurricane Katrina in 2005, HOPE was there to help with immediate medical volunteer assistance and the delivery of critically needed medicines and medical supplies. Our long- term help even resulted in permanent health care services being restored and even expanded in Moss Point Mississippi, an area devastated by the hurricane.

Last year, HOPE began working in the rural areas of New Mexico, this time to address disparities in the recognition and treatment of chronic diseases by increasing access to prevention education, medical screenings and specialty services using a mobile health clinic and telemedicine.

Over the next couple of days, I will be traveling throughout the Mississippi Delta, exploring some of the 30 programs administered by Delta Health Alliance, an organization dedicated to providing better health care and health care access to the residents of the area. As I visit the clinics and medical education institutions and meet with beneficiaries, program administrators and even government officials, I will be assessing opportunities where HOPE's well-established medical volunteer, donated medicines and health education programs might help support the important work of the Delta Health Alliance.

I invite you to follow my blog over the next few days to learn more about the needs and lifesaving work being provided to underserved, women and children, right here in our own country.

John

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Facilitating Cholera Care and Education in Haiti

Labels: Haiti , Humanitarian Aid

The Grand Facilitator – that is one of the main roles Project HOPE is fulfilling in Haiti today to address the recent cholera outbreak.

In addition to providing medical volunteers, as well as donated medicines and medical supplies, to care for those now suffering from cholera and to assist in the prevention of the disease, Project HOPE is bringing a team of the world’s foremost experts in cholera to Haiti.

Project HOPE, with the assistance of HOPE volunteer and Massachusetts General Hospital physician Larry Ronan, is coordinating the participation of the International Center of Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B) to assess the current situation and provide its clinical expertise to enhance the care of cholera patients.

The eight-person ICDDR,B team, under the direction of Dr. Alejandro Cravioto, is bringing decades of experience in the treatment of cholera and dysentery, as well as the management of major epidemic outbreaks. The ICDDR,B has assisted governments and local health authorities in countries such as Bahrain, Ecuador, Iraq, Mozambique, Peru, Zaire, Nepal, Papua New Guinea and Zimbabwe, in successfully handling cholera outbreaks.

In addition to the ICDDR,B team, Project HOPE is facilitating the involvement of a four-person team from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) with the ICDDR,B to help in the creation of a plan to slow and eventually stop the cholera outbreak.

Project HOPE has facilitated all of these resources, in addition to a volunteer team of physicians and nurses from the Massachusetts General Hospital and the delivery of nearly $200,000 of medical supplies in less than one week – all the result of 52 years of experience in dealing with natural disasters.

It is these types of resources – global expertise, medical volunteers and medicines and medical supplies – that Project HOPE is bringing to bear to benefit the people of Haiti and others around the world in need of our help

John

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HOPE Working to Reduce Widespread Suffering from Cholera

Labels: Haiti , Humanitarian Aid

At the request of the Haiti Minister of Health, Project HOPE has responded swiftly to the country’s cholera outbreak.

Yesterday, an additional six HOPE volunteers from Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston arrived at L’hopital Albert Schweitzer in Deschapelles, located in the Artibonite River Valley, the ground-zero for the cholera epidemic with a population of 300,000.

The good news is that these HOPE volunteers, when they arrived, found fewer patients being admitted with cholera. That said, they are now treating 60 cholera patients in a facility that normally has 80 beds -- and is still caring for patients with long-term injuries from the January earthquake.

In addition to patient care, the HOPE volunteers will train area residents, throughout the Artibonite Valley, how to prevent the spread of the disease with good personal hygiene and proper food handling, as well as clean water usage. Even with the current numbers of cholera patients at L’hopital Albert Schweitzer, it is still early in the disease outbreak process.

In keeping with our intent to do all we can to reduce, and ultimately eliminate, the spread of the disease, HOPE will be sending two additional volunteer physicians from the MGH to Haiti on Thursday, one a pediatric and the other an adult specialist in infectious diseases.

For the health of the Haitian people, we are working hard to reduce widespread suffering and death from the cholera outbreak. Your support means much to HOPE. I look forward to sharing my next update with you.

John

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