Univers Medical Center Year 2010 Activities Summary
By: Michele Benson, Lead Nurse in UMC---July 2011
(Michele Benson is a hospital nurse from Columbus, Ohio who went to Ouanaminthe in the fall of 2010 to work for one to two years as ÒLead NurseÓ in the Univers Medical Center)
Univers Medical Center (UMC) is now open 24 hours a day, seven days per week, for regular services and for inpatient care---for those patients needing overnight observation and care; this service expansion was started in September 2010. To staff this new 24/7 operating schedule, the two existing physicians were joined by two newly-hired physicians.
UMC opens at 7 am for people to start coming for doctor appointments, or ‘consultations’ as we call them. People don’t call and make an appointment. They just come to the clinic if they want to be seen by a doctor. They pay their 50 Haitian Goud — or $1.25 U.S. — outside at the cashiers’ window and then go to the admission area just inside the front door. After they get their little white piece of paper they walk down the hall to the room where we take their vital signs — blood pressure, pulse, temperature and weight. Then they go sit or stand in the hot, narrow hallway until they are called by the doctor. If the doctor orders lab tests for them, they go up to the second floor to the lab and have blood drawn or get their little glass container for a urine sample.
For these lab tests, patient then returns to the clinic at 3 pm the same day and again sits in the hot, narrow hallway until they are called to get the results of their tests. Sometimes we have 25 or more people sitting in the hallway waiting for their results, depending on how busy the morning was.
A variety of patients are seen by Univers Medical Center doctors every day.
Patients come in with many different problems just like in the U.S. High blood pressure, drinking of a poisonous substance such as Clorox, high blood sugar, strokes, and asthma. Here at UMC the majority of patients come in with the same complaints. Stomach pain, diarrhea, fever/chills, body aches, headache, vomiting and malaise. In 2010 we saw 2,851 cases of malaria and 3,281 cases of typhoid fever.
Below is a listing of the number of patients seen by each area at the clinic in CY 2010.
- Doctor consultations: 16,584
- Lab visits: 10,220
- Sonograms: 208
- Maternity: 31
- ECG’s: 27
- Pharmacy visits: 17,514
- Dentist visits: 1,216
- Optometry visits: 1,874
- Glasses given out: 91
- Patients hospitalized from Sept — Dec (24 hour care started in Sept): 568
- Gynecology visits from Aug — Dec (Gynecologist hired in Aug): 297
- Surgeries performed by Mission Teams: 296+
Patients also come in for dressing changes to wounds that are mainly on the lower extremities. Some of them take years to heal probably because of the conditions here in Haiti and the lack of balanced nutrition. Many people come in with lacerations from a variety of sources ranging from motorcycle accidents to machete injuries to rocks and bottles that have been propelled into the air or into a person’s head or face.
So, as you can see, the clinic is a very busy place. Hopefully in the coming year we will be able to expand our services to provide even better care for the people of Ouanaminthe.
Interview with Dr. Loubens---Staff Optometrist at UMC
By: UMC's Lead Nurse Michele Benson (Interviewer) and Dr. Loubens
Michelle: How long have you worked at UMC?
Dr. Loubens: I've been here since October 5, 2009.
Michelle: How many patients do you see per day?
Dr. Loubens: I see at least 15 patients a day but sometimes more than 20.
Michelle: What kind of problems do you see?
Dr. Loubens: I can do the diagnosis of all kinds of eye problems but when it is a complicated case I refer to another doctor that I know well and collaborate with.
Michelle: Are you able to help everyone who comes to see you?
Dr. Loubens: Sincerely, I could help everyone who comes in but the real problem is that I need some equipment like: Tonometer (Perkins), Slit lamp, Indirect ophthalmoscope. We can't do ophthalmology or comprehensive optometry without those Instruments, and I know that I have a very good knowledge in ophthalmology.
Michelle: Do you send/refer people to another location?
Dr. Loubens: Yes, when I receive a patient with a mature cataract or glaucoma that doesn't want to be in control with eye drops I refer them to an ophthalmic surgeon in order to realize ECCE and IOL surgery and trabeculectomy or trabeculoplasty respectively.
Michelle: In the U.S. people come in for 'well visits'. Do people in Haiti come in for 'well visits' ?
Dr. Loubens: Unfortunately here we receive our patients when there is nothing to do to help them. That's why a prevention program in the community could help the needy people.
Michelle: What is your biggest challenge here at UMC?
Dr. Loubens: The biggest challenge is the equipment. After we have more equipment we can receive a lot of patients with eye problems because I have decided to help them with love and dedication.
Michelle: Is there anything else you would like to tell me?
Dr. Loubens: If there is something else I can tell you it would be that I would like to start a Blindness Prevention program in the community and around Ouanaminthe, maybe one day a week. I would like to do a screening of people that have real problems then I can refer them here to the clinic and help them. Prevention is the best way to help needy people and I am very excited to help. That's my goal here for this year. The other goal is to perform at least 500 cataract surgeries next year.
(I asked Dr. Loubens if there are any ophthamologists in Ouanaminthe to perform the cataract surgery. He said “no there is not.” He is hoping one will come)
|
