Project HOPE, a global health education and humanitarian assistance organization, yesterday welcomed ten employees from the global pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly and Company for a two-week volunteer assignment at the HOPE Centre in South Africa. The volunteers will provide assistance to the staff at the HOPE Centre in a variety of capacities, all in an effort to improve the quality of care at the clinic.
 Community health workers employed by the clinic go out into local areas to offer screenings for diabetes and hypertension, and they offer access to treatment for those individuals found to suffer from these and other illnesses. Because many residents of this community do not have ready access to family medicine providers, the clinic also offers treatment for many other common illnesses and ailments. The ten volunteers starting their two-week assignments today at the HOPE Centre work in a variety of capacities for Lilly including clinical research, pharmaceutical sales, communications and manufacturing. They have each been assigned to one of five different functional areas of the clinic: clinical support, community screening, pharmacy and lab support, communications and peer support.  “I am thrilled to welcome so many talented individuals from Lilly to the HOPE Centre,” said Stefan Lawson, Project HOPE’s Country Director for South Africa and Director of the HOPE Centre. “I look forward to the lasting contributions these volunteers will make to our community.” The volunteers are part of Connecting Hearts Abroad, Lilly’s global employee volunteer program, which was launched in 2011. Throughout 2013, Lilly will send 200 employees from 45 countries to impoverished communities throughout the world on two-week service assignments. About Project HOPE Founded in 1958, Project HOPE (Health Opportunities for People Everywhere) is dedicated to providing lasting solutions to health crises, with the mission of helping people to help themselves. Identifiable to many by the SS HOPE, the world’s first peacetime hospital ship, Project HOPE now conducts land-based medical training and health education programs in 35 countries across five continents. http://www.projecthope.org About Eli Lilly and Company Lilly, a leading innovation-driven corporation is developing a growing portfolio of pharmaceutical products by applying the latest research from its own worldwide laboratories and from collaborations with eminent scientific organizations. Headquartered in Indianapolis, Lilly provides answers – through medicines and information – for some of the world’s most urgent medical needs. Additional information about Lilly is available at www.lilly.com . |
Our Clinic Staff
On Average, we see about 40 patients a day in our clinc at Zandspruit.
The Clinic
Patients can schedule appointments to limit their waiting time.
Educating Patients
Calsses are held daily to assist our patients in achieving healthier lifestyles.
Our Community Garden
Ladies within the community tend to our gardens. The produce is sold to local businesses.
Press Release - Project HOPE Welcomes Volunteers from Eli Lilly and Company for Two-Week Assignment at the HOPE Centre in South Africa
Familiar healthcare challenges in a rewarding new environment
The project I began when I started working
at the HOPE Centre clinic in Zandspruit was an inventory tracking system for
the clinic pharmacy. In this busy
clinic, open 3 days per week, patients are primarily seen for the treatment of
diabetes and hypertension. However,
nurses also address common illnesses/ailments as many patients do not have
ready access to family medicine providers.
Thus, the clinic pharmacy is as busy as the clinic and stocks a wide
array of medications to treat patients.
As I started the process of building an
inventory system that could be implemented in the clinic pharmacy, I was struck
by a number of similarities between the challenges I saw in this clinic in
South Africa and other healthcare practice environments I’ve worked in.
The first was the challenge of ensuring that
the clinic was able to stock the right number of the correct supplies to meet
the variable demand created by patients coming in with an unpredictable set of
symptoms and conditions. This is a
challenge almost all providers face but especially so here where the clinic
attempts to keep all medications on-hand and not create another barrier to care
by sending patients out to a pharmacy with a script.
The second is that in order to match supply
with demand as effectively as possible, record-keeping must be accurate and
detailed enough to inform regular purchases/ordering for the clinic. As I evaluated the barriers to getting this
data at the HOPE Centre clinic pharmacy, I was met with the familiar “paper
problem.” Records were kept on paper and
not electronically in a form that could be used to easily evaluate how many and
what kind of medications were being used each day at the clinic.
Finally, across most healthcare practice
environments, the detailed and sometimes monotonous tasks of collecting data,
evaluating that data, and making decisions based on it are not what most
healthcare providers want to, nor should spend their time doing. Their valuable time is better spent with
patients: educating, treating, and
providing care. While the
behind-the-scenes tasks are important, it is important and often a significant
challenge to ensure that providers receive the support that they need to do
their jobs seamlessly and maximize the time they are able to spend with
patients.
With an inventory system now in place that
will help address some of those challenges, I hope that the HOPE Centre clinic
in Zandspruit will now be even more efficient and able to treat more patients
who I know greatly appreciate the much-needed and high-quality care Project
HOPE is providing in this community.
Julie Brink
South Africa experience by Jo Burt
It’s hard to believe that our two months in
South Africa have already ended. The
time went so fast and I am sure that is because we were so busy all the time.
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| Jo busy in the Hope Clinic |
The Emthonjeni Hope Centre
Clinic is a great asset to the community and provides easy access to treatment
and care that in the past has not been accessible to the residents of
Zandspruit. Whilst in Zandspruit we met a 50 year old gentleman who had suffered
a stroke while at home alone. Health Care Workers from Project Hope happened to
be making a pre-clinic visit to this particular man’s compound and found him
with symptoms of a stroke, including hemiplegia, and unintelligible
speech. They were able to get emergency
care to him and when he was released from the hospital, he was referred to the Hope
clinic. In a short period of time he was
walking on his own, and has now fully recovered the use of his arm and has a
near normal blood pressure with minimal medication. He attributes his life and recovery to the
clinic. He truly believes that if
Project Hope had not been in the community, he would not be alive today.
Much of our time spent working with the Project was organizing the
clinic, helping to streamline processes and improve the timeliness of
visits. Upon arrival at the project, the
clinic often had wait times for patients of several hours. The implementation
of new processes has been successful in decreasing the appointment wait times
to less than 60 minutes which was a goal for the clinic. Streamlining procedures for drawing blood for
lab tests has helped to decrease wait times so that most patients are waiting
less than 20 minutes and the process for the Family Nurse Practitioners (FNP’s)
is much smoother. Improving the ability
for the FNP’s to see more patients is an important step to providing more
patients with services.
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| Jo's sister and fellow exchange nurse: Dot, organising medication. |
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| Jo and Dot training volunteers how to test glucose levels |
In addition to the improvement in the clinic, it has been important to
evaluate the services and provide assurance intended outcomes are being
achieved. Data collection, collation
and analysis of the data are an integral part of this project. This work will be ongoing, but has already
demonstrated that treatment for
hypertension has been successful. Also,
there is a decrease in the glycosated hemoglobin’s for the diabetic
patients.
It has been a tremendous privilege to participate in this project and I
will never forget the wonderful experiences.
Seeing a 22 year old mother with four children under the age of 5 with a
blood pressure of 200/120 and being able to get her on medications that may
save her life was very rewarding. Having
a 35 year old gentleman come to the clinic with a blood sugar of 25.1 mmol/l
and being able to get him medications and education to help manage his diabetes
was a testimony to the importance of the clinic. There are multiple stories of this type that
have provided meaning and importance to the project.
One of the other great benefits of this project is the fact that local
people are trained and become employed by Project Hope to sustain this
project. Not only does the project
provide much needed employment for several people, it is strengthening their
self esteem, providing value to their lives, and helping them to become
advocates for their patients and the clinic.
It has been a genuine privilege to be able to provide leadership and
development for these young people and to know that their lives will be
improved for this opportunity.
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| Zandspruit resident screened by Jo & Dot's team |
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| Zandspruit scene |
I cannot personally say enough about how much meaning this project has
brought to my life. There are so many
skills that I have been able to develop and improve and the cultural exchange
has been immeasurable. I will never
forget the people I have grown to love.
I hope that I have been able to make a small contribution to the Project
and I know that the Project has had a life changing effect on me.
 |
| Jo & Dot with volunteer screening team about to head out in to Zandspruit |
Screening week at Project Hope
From 11th - 15th March it is screening week at
Project Hope. Every month here a week long screening exercise is conducted by
volunteers in Zandspruit or nearby Cosmo City to detect high blood pressure and
diabetes among the local residents, so those suffering from these chronic
conditions can be referred to the Hope Centre clinic for on-going care. In 2013 a door-to-door
screening programme has been established to maximise uptake of screening
and make the process as easy as possible for the local population to access.
Whilst Patrick’s results were fine, his wife showed signs of
high blood pressure. She tells us she is ‘stressed because (she) has two young
children and a baby and not much money’. She received a referral to the Hope
Clinic like a number of other residents we met that day.
We checked around 14 people at Patrick’s house. When we ran
out of people to test at his house, Patrick in his enthusiasm joined us as we
made our way through Zandspruit and before we knew it was approaching people on
the street to take part in the screening.
Our target was to screen 30 residents in one day, which we successfully
managed to do. Sometimes however
residents were reluctant to get involved, when I asked Patrick why people were
not interested he said ‘they say they are well, and do not need to be tested.
They don’t really understand about high blood pressure or diabetes. They say
they will go to the doctors if they are ill’.
Patrick was brilliant! He helped Bonita to measure patients,
and helped to put people at ease, while Polinah was busy recording the results.
Many of the residents we spoke to who had high blood pressure complained of
stress because of unemployment and lack of money for basic living. All those
who agreed to take part in the screening were very welcoming and grateful for
the service offered.
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| Essential screening kit |
During the most recent screening programme, I went with
trainee nursing assistant Bonita and team leader Polinah in to Zandspruit to
meet, measure and test the residents we met for signs of diabetes and high
blood pressure, making referrals to the Hope Clinic when necessary.
As we were walking through Zandspruit a local resident called Patrick called out to us, inviting us in to his home to screen himself, his wife and his neighbours. Patrick had seen the teams out the day before and was keen to get involved. After pulling chairs up for us, Patrick quickly rounded up a number of his neighbours and beckoned people off the street to join in the screening.
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| Patrick and his oldest two children |
As we were walking through Zandspruit a local resident called Patrick called out to us, inviting us in to his home to screen himself, his wife and his neighbours. Patrick had seen the teams out the day before and was keen to get involved. After pulling chairs up for us, Patrick quickly rounded up a number of his neighbours and beckoned people off the street to join in the screening.
Bonita methodically measured blood pressure from each arm in
every resident, followed by a prick test
to discover glucose levels, then
measured people’s height, weight and waist circumference. Polinah in turn
carefully recorded each of the results and completed referral letters for
residents when they showed signs of hypertension or diabetes.
Patrick who had welcomed us in, is a spray painter but currently out of work. He lives here in
his house with his wife, two young children and an 8 week old baby. He tells me
‘the screening is such a good thing. If people don’t know they have a problem,
then it will only get worse until it is difficult to deal with’.
 |
| Blood pressure check |
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| Residents gather at Patrick's house |
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| Glucose testing |
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| Bonita taking waist measurements |
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| Measuring weight |
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| Measuring height |
Anne
The Hope Centre Clinic opens on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays here in Zandspruit. It is a one-stop-shop for people with chronic illness in the community to get treated for either hypertension or diabetes alongside other day to day illness. Recently I had an opportunity to catch up with a few people in the clinic as they waited to be seen by the nurses and will be reporting back via this blog on the individual experiences of these people:
The first lady I spoke to was Anne. Anne is 65 years old, and lives alone in Zandspruit after her husband passed away. She runs her own business ‘it is gas cylinders’ she tells me, ‘I exchange empty ones for full ones, just a little gas stove shop but it helps me to pay for my food and things’.
Anne came to the clinic today for a referral letter because she is moving tomorrow from Zandspruit to a new home in West Rand. She explained to me how she came to attend the Hope Clinic, the problems she faces in her community and why she is here today:
‘On the day I saw a screening tent in the street, I was not feeling well at all. I felt this day I had to die, so I thought I will sit down at this tent to die. A man sitting at the tent said to me ‘’go and see the nurses at Project Hope’’ they honestly saved my life. My BP was very high, 198 over something, I can’t remember what it was but they told me it was dangerously high. I didn’t even know there was a clinic here, but it made my day and they saved my life.
My husband died a couple of years ago, and you know there are a lot of problems being a widow and being old. People discard you and do not want to know you. Conditions are a problem here in Zandspruit. For example for a long time a man has walked across my shack roof and my neighbours every night, and I am afraid. He hasn’t tried to come in but it makes me think about the way I am living and my future. After coming to the Hope clinic and getting well I decided that I had a future and did not have to live like this.
Sometimes there are things you want to talk about, you keep them here in your chest, but there is no one to listen, so you keep it to yourself. One time I came here to the Hope clinic a member of the team was kind to me and I opened up about my problems. I have such high regard for the people here, because they have time for patients. No-one else would listen to me, and I'm sure it helped me feel better.
I wished to get out of Zandspruit and because I had my health back I was able to feel strong enough to think about the future. Today I am looking for a referral letter because I am going to stay in town for good. A long drive in to West Rand.
They are very helpful here. I wish that there will be a Hope clinic where I am moving to. Other clinics have no time for patients, you feel that they don’t want to talk to you. How can they help you when they don’t even want to talk about what is wrong?
Where I am going, the weather is hotter and there is little water, the home is small but it is better than a corrugated shack. Maybe my blood pressure will get right’.
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