We asked Dr. Pierre, Medical Director, Integrated Community Health Services, to share what he is most proud of in 2018 and what he hopes to accomplish next year. Dr. Pierre came to HAS from Cuba, where he specialized in family medicine. With a total of 14 years practicing medicine in Haiti, five of which have been at HAS, Dr. Pierre’s leadership in Integrated Community Services has increased the reach of proactive health campaigns that seek to prevent illness and disease.
Dear Friend,
Maybe the greatest strength of HAS is that it is integrated within the community. It is not working for the community, but WITH THEM and this is something that we can say is extraordinary!
In 2018, we focused on training and continuing education in an effort to improve our tactics and provide quality services. We completed the full training of our 21 newest community health workers in collaboration with our partners Suisse-Santé-Haïti. We provided education to all of our community health workers. Our clinical staff also participated in training both here and in Port au Prince.
Thanks to a generous donor, we made hemoglobin rapid testing available to our pregnant patients, which is key in determining whether a woman is anemic. Having this test result allows our staff to refer these women to the hospital and to make recommendations about whether these women should give birth in the hospital rather than their homes, as anemia puts them at a higher risk.
This donor who made the tests possible will save lives of women and mothers.
My wish for 2019 is to make improvements in staffing and record keeping at the community health centers, which would alleviate some of the referrals to the hospital and ensure only the most critical cases have to actually visit HAS.
Thank you for making HAS a beacon of hope for our patients and community.
I hope you will support my team’s hard work and vision by making a charitable donation today. Your support will directly help us provide life-saving education and care.