Konbit Sante Cap-Haitien Health Partnership

Konbit Sante supports our partners by facilitating the collection and delivery of donated medical equipment, supplies, and office furniture to Cap-Haitien from our warehouse in Maine, as well as from other organizations around the U.S. and abroad. We only ship supplies that are requested by our partners to prevent waste.

Konbit Sante is dedicated to avoiding high operational costs, and maintains a renewable franchise from the Haitian government that allows us to import supplies duty-free. That franchise not only reduces the expense of our own containers, it also allows us to consign containers at a low cost for other nonprofit organizations that deliver supplies to healthcare facilities in northern Haiti. To further reduce costs, we purchase medications for our partners at deeply discounted rates from the Pan-American Health Organization’s medical supply program, PROMESS. At Justinien University Hospital, our largest and oldest healthcare partner, we support the salary of a full-time stock manager who reviews the inventory, alert the hospital about potential stock-outs, and ensures that supplies are allocated as needed. This provides security measures to ensure that equipment and supplies are properly stored, inventoried, and tracked.

Helping our healthcare partners provide quality obstetrics, gynecology, and early childhood care is one of the top priorities of Konbit Sante in its mission to build a sustainable health system in Cap-Haitien. Without proper prenatal and postnatal health care, children can face difficulties with growth and development that have debilitating effects for years.

One of our healthcare partners, Justinien University Hospital (JUH), is the biggest public hospital in northern Haiti and is home to the largest pediatrics facility in the region. At JUH, we coordinate training for pediatric interns and residents on everything from conducting medical research to neonatal resuscitation training, and provide medications, supplies, and equipment to the service.

One of the key areas to providing proper pediatrics care is to identify issues in the delivery of care. Since 2012, Konbit Sante has facilitated monthly mortality reviews within the service. Through analysis and discussion, it was revealed that there was a high mortality rate of neonates born moderately premature due to a lack of readily available emergency medicines and supplies. We implemented a system whereby the assistant facilities manager tracks the inventory of these supplies and alerts the hospital when stock is running low so that it can be replenished before running out. This has reduced the mortality rate of moderately premature neonates by more than 40 percent, and we continue to work with JUH to further reduce this rate.

Reliable data is essential to the field of medicine. Without being able to accurately identify problems and develop a plan to address those problems in an informed, deliberate fashion, improvements to patient care and outcomes cannot be accomplished in a manner that is effective and sustainable.

Since 2018, Konbit Sante has collaborated with Haiti Medical Education (HME) and the administration at Justinien University Hospital (JUH) on a research program that helps medical residents fulfill graduation requirements while identifying and studying areas that impact patient care. Throughout the year, residents receive training on how to conduct research from A to Z—everything from identifying a topic and getting approval from an institutional review board to analyzing literature, collecting data, and presenting research findings. Konbit Sante and HME recruit volunteer physicians from the United States, Haiti, and abroad to mentor the residents throughout the process. The purpose of the program is not only to make participants more skilled healthcare providers, but to collect data that will strengthen capacity for health at JUH and throughout Haiti.

Konbit Sante recognizes that good infrastructure means more than just a building to deliver health care. It means having enough space to meet the needs of the community, clean water for washing and drinking, a reliable source of energy to power facilities and equipment, regular maintenance, and more.

At Justinien University Hospital (JUH), our largest and oldest healthcare partner, we have facilitated and/or assisted with numerous infrastructure improvements over the past 18 years, including the installation of internet access to improve communications; major upgrades to the water and electrical systems; construction of a solid waste management building; and the expansion of the pediatric services with a new building. We also support the salary of an assistant facilities manager in the JUH pediatrics department who monitors supplies and conducts routine maintenance on the facility.

At Fort Saint Michel Health Center, we assisted in the enlargement of the maternity care unit and conducted a major expansion that alleviated congested waiting and treatment areas as well as installed a drainage system to prevent frequent flooding.

Following a devastating earthquake that left thousands in Haiti with permanent disabilities, we helped fund the construction of a 20-bed rehabilitation facility at Hopital de la Convention Baptist d’Haiti. We continue to support this institution to gain independence through a new solar energy system.

For our newest partner, Unite de Lutte pour la Sante Health Center (ULS), we raised more than $200,000 and provided engineering and design expertise for the construction of a new primary care clinic in Bande du Nord. We also assisted in fundraising efforts for a solar panel grid at ULS that makes the clinic less reliant on electric power and gas-operated generators.

Since 2017, we have partnered with the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center (CCMC) in Hartford, Connecticut to deliver training on neonatal care at Justinien University Hospital. Volunteers from CCMC train medical staff in the pediatrics service both on site and remotely using Pediatric Advanced Life Support, a course developed by the American Heart Association to improve the quality of care provided to seriously ill or injured children.

The need and content of this training, like many of our activities in support of the pediatric service, are informed by what is learned during the service’s monthly mortality reviews in which the CCMC volunteers regularly participate. Training has included instruction on Continuous Positive Airway Pressure machines; election infusion pumps for fluid management; ultrasound/cardiography for diagnostics; and emergency medications for care management. They have also conducted educational sessions for the community on the nutritional benefits of breast-feeding and how to perform manual expression of breast milk.