Kisumu Medical and Education Trust (KMET)

Kisumu Medical and Education Trust (KMET) is a non-profit, non-governmental organization founded in 1995 and registered under the Kenyan Trustees Act in 1996. It was formed to create, establish and manage health, education and development programs; promote and manage medical institutions to provide and sustain comprehensive clinical and educational facilities and services of the highest quality throughout Kenya. KMET is managed through a Board of Trustees which ensures that the project is managed according to KMET policies and procedures of KMET and the laws of Kenya. KMET envisions communities with accessible quality, sustainable reproductive health and education services that promote human rights. Our Mission is to promote innovative and sustainable health and education programs among underserved communities. KMET’s Goal is to integrate reproductive health (RH) into core community development activities (This was one of the key resolutions at ICPD Cairo 1994). KMET’s Core Values are encapsulated in the acronym CHIGAID where: C - Community participation, H- Human rights promotion, I – Innovation, G - Gender Equity, A –Accountability, I – Integrity, D – Diversity. KMET’s comprehensive integrated RH model was identified as a best practice internationally leading to the Margaret Sanger Award (2004) by Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) for leadership and courage in advocating for Reproductive Health Rights, the first time for the award to come to Africa. KMET’s Comprehensive Integrated Reproductive Health Services model is based on the following principles: 1) Targeting Public and Private health providers to improve access to comprehensive RH services; 2) Establishing a Network of Providers (Huduma Poa); 3) Establishing a Medical Credit Fund to improve the capacity of facilities to provide RH services and Microfinance (through the KMET SACCO) as a service to motivate/sustain CHWs as volunteers; 4) Community oriented health access insurance plan for the provision of quality health services at the most affordable rate; 5) Targeting underserved adolescent and young girls (ages 10-24 years) through provision of life and vocational skills and economic empowerment as a strategy to prevent unwanted/unplanned pregnancies, unsafe abortion and HIV/AIDS; producing and distributing rewash able sanitary towels to disadvantaged girls in schools; and 6) Production and distribution of enriched Nutri-flour to chronically ill especially People Living with AIDS (PLWAs).

Visit their website: www.kmet.co.ke

Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH)

Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) is a leading academic medical center in Boston founded in 1811. It is the largest and oldest teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School. The MGH annual research budget exceeds $750 million. The hospital had 25,066 employees in 2013. The MGH Division of Global Health and Human Rights (GHHR) in the Department of Emergency Medicine has a mission to care for the world's most vulnerable by developing and facilitating health-care delivery, research, education, and capacity-building initiatives. MGH-GHHR has extensive experience working in resource-poor settings on initiatives designed to strengthen health systems through use of affordable technologies for health transformation. It has operated health systems-strengthening programs in Zambia, Liberia, South Sudan, Kenya, Senegal, Ghana, among other countries. It has received USAID funding in the past, via 3 USAID Saving Lives at Birth awards (2 as lead applicant, 1 as subcontractor). GHHR was a recipient of a USAID 2013 Saving Lives at Birth Transition to Scale grant (Scaling up uterine balloon tamponade system for post-partum haemorrhage in Kenya and Sierra Leone) and a 2014 grant for its Every Second Matters-Ketamine (ESM-Ketamine) anaesthesia innovation. The ESM-Ketamine project is being conducted in close partnership with SCH. MGH is co-founder of the African continent's first residency program in Emergency and Family Medicine, which launched its inaugural class in September 2014. GHHR is also a two-time recipient of IZUMI Foundation funding. Specifically, in partnership with the IZUMI Foundation, GHHR has worked to alleviate child malnutrition with Nyakibale Hospital, Uganda, since 2009. Since 2007, GHHR has completed maternal, newborn, and child health systems-strengthening projects in Zambia, Liberia, Kenya, Uganda, Mali, South Sudan, Ghana, Nepal, Sierra Leone, Senegal, and the U.S. GHHR also has extensive experience designing and implementing capacity-building and research programs, specifically in the domain of maternal, newborn, and child health (MNCH) and especially in western Kenya.

Visit their website: www.massgeneral.org/emergencymedicineglobalhealth

Sagam Community Hospital (SCH)

Sagam Community Hospital (SCH) is a leading hospital in western Kenya that is engaged in several formal health partnerships with Kenyan and US health institutions, including MGH. Since its founding in 1998, Sagam has shown a profound commitment to serving the poor. The hospital is located in rural western Kenya, and serves as an important safety net hospital for the region; it cares for the most vulnerable populations. The hospital was founded by Dr. Khama Rogo – a distinguished World Bank physician health executive, former President of the Kenya Medical Association, and visionary – on his family’s own plot of land and with the support of his wife, Dr. Lucie Rogo. Dr. Khama Rogo’s vision for SCH is to provide the rural poor the same high quality of care as people living in Kenya’s large cities.

• Since its establishment in 1998, SCH has managed to build towards a sustainable financial outlook through various partnerships, donations, investments and governmental engagements.
• Over the last few years of operating, a majority of SCH’s income is generated from remittances from the government for claims under the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) (Kenya’s public health insurance plan). As an NHIF-accredited institution, there is comprehensive coverage provided for patients for in-patient, ob-gyn and certain surgical procedures. It should be noted that the current NHIF rates are to be increased this month, which will contribute further to the hospital’s sustainability. Other sustainable revenue generation comes from our mortuary, ambulance/hearse services and cafeteria.
• Key networks and partnerships with the Ministry of Health, the County Government of Siaya, Sub-County Government of Gem, and other public and private health institutions in the region have helped push collaborations and interventions that are cost-saving and efficient for both SCH and its vision of provision of high-quality but affordable healthcare for the public. In addition, collaborations with various NGOs have been a strategic goal of SCH in helping to provide services in a cost-efficient manner. For example, the International Centre for AIDS Care and Treatment Program (ICAP) and Columbia University School of Public Health supports SCH’s HIV prevention and treatment programs through the provision of counseling and weekly voluntary male circumcision to our clients.
• In August 2014, SCH, in partnership with the MGH Division of Global Health and Human Rights, collaborated in the creation of the SCH-GHHR Medical Innovation Centre. This initiative provided upgraded Emergency, Surgical, Dental, Ophthalmology, ENT, and Delivery/Neonatal equipment and supplies to equip the newly renovated Sagam Hospital in Sagam, Kenya. The suites were selected and customized specifically for SCH, based on assessment information provided by Dr. Burke and the Sagam team. The suites equip each service and/or department in the facility plans, and can be adjusted as the project needs or scope may change and develop. In addition, the initiative established an E-Learning Centre to teach clinical examinations and treatment as well as a conference center for residents and clinicians at Sagam.
• With funding from the Kletjian Foundation, SCH has constructed brand-new operating theatres to support its clinical services and training ventures for its residency and internship programs, medical student rotations, and the introduction of surgical training as it works to be accredited from the College of Surgeons of East, Central and Southern Africa (COSECSA). SCH will also begin specialized surgical services such as laparoscopic surgery through its collaboration with MGH, which has provided equipment and training resources.
• Most recently, SCH has partnered with the Centre for Public Health and Development (CPHD). CPHD is a non-profit organization in Kenya working to improve health systems through training and other innovative solutions. SCH has partnered with CPHD in the installation of oxygen piping throughout its main clinical ward, emergency room, operating theatres and private ward. In addition, CPHD is supporting SCH, through its partnership with General Electric (GE), in the provision of equipment for SCH’s emergency room and operating theatres. Furthermore, CPHD provides maintenance support for the equipment and oxygen system, including offering training in the aforementioned areas. SCH will soon serve as a training site for CPHD’s Nurse Anaesthesia Training Program currently running at Kijabe Hospital.
• Furthermore, SCH has now opened its private wing that will offer fully-enclosed private suites and semi-private units to clients that are able to pay a higher cost or have more comprehensive insurance coverage. This is part of the hospital’s vision to provide quality services in the county and also enhance its revenue-generating activities towards a more sustainable future. Lastly, SCH/MGH has secured a CT scan machine (for a purchase price of $1) that would be installed within the next 2 years, would serve as the only CT scanner in the county, and would attract clientele and referrals from other hospitals in the region.

Through such endeavors, SCH continues to further its goals to provide affordable and quality healthcare to the rural community it serves and has fostered collaboration between the United States with Western Kenya and beyond. The ASHA programme would further build upon these efforts and be sustained well beyond the proposed project’s conclusion.

Visit their website: www.sagamhealth.com