At One Namibian Hospital, Shorter Lines, Healthier Clients

March 02, 2017In remote northern Namibia, Onandjokwe Hospital is becoming a national model for bringing health care to people where they live.Just a few years ago, if you ’d visited northern Namibia’s Onandjokwe Hospital to, say, get a refill on your HIV meds, you’d have had to sit in line for an average of 8 or 9 hours.“You had to wait for your name to be called at reception, then to have your BMI measured, then to have blood drawn, then HIV counseling, and then wait up to five hours at the pharmacy,” says nurse Ruusa Shipena, the ART (antiretroviral therapies) supervisor at Onandjokwe’s Shanamutango HIV cli nic. People would turn up at the clinic the night before and sleep on the sidewalks just to be at the front of the line the next morning.Shipena and her colleagues were seeing up to 80 clients per day —each.The waiting room was permanently packed. Staff were stressed out and exhausted.“Every day when you go home, your hands, your fingers, you have to—” nurse Shipena winces and makes a pained stretching motion. She and her colleagues were seeing up to 80 clients per day—each.But today that number has dropped to around 40. The waiting room isn ’t crowded. Things are running smoothly. And the few people who sit waiting in the reception area are called up within a few minutes of taking their seats, their entire visit now taking about an hour. The nurses are busy but calm as they talk with clients and smile at the visiting babies.What Changed at Onandj...
Source: IntraHealth International - Category: Global & Universal Authors: Source Type: news