Global Health Action (Dec 2023)

Sustainable surgical resource initiative for Haiti: the SSRI-Haiti project

  • Richard Frechette,
  • Nathalie Colas,
  • Marc Augustin,
  • Nathalie Edema,
  • Gerson Pyram,
  • Stanley Louis,
  • Carl Eric Crevecoeur,
  • Carmeline Mathurin,
  • Raphael Louigne,
  • Bhavesh Patel,
  • Mitchell Humphreys,
  • Alyssa Chapital,
  • Mallory Martin,
  • Qamarissa Ayoub,
  • Daniel Hottinger,
  • Michael T. McCurdy,
  • Quincy Tran,
  • Richard Skupski,
  • Donald Zimmer,
  • Mark Walsh,
  • the SSRI-Haiti Project Group Contributors*

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1080/16549716.2023.2180867
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 16, no. 1

Abstract

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In response to the 2010 earthquake and subsequent cholera epidemic, St Luke’s Medical Center was established in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Here, we describe its inception and evolution to include an intensive care unit and two operating rooms, as well as the staffing, training and experiential learning activities, which helped St Luke’s become a sustainable surgical resource. We describe a three-phase model for establishing a sustainable surgical centre in Haiti (build facility and acquire equipment; train staff and perform surgeries; provide continued education and expansion including regular specialist trips) and we report a progressive increase in the number and complexity of cases performed by all-Haitian staff from 2012 to 2022. The results are generalised in the context of the ‘delay framework’ to global health along with a discussion of the application of this three-phase model to resource-limited environments. We conclude with a brief description of the formation of a remote surgical centre in Port-Salut, an unforeseen benefit of local competence and independence. Establishing sustainable and collaborative surgery centres operated by local staff accelerates the ability of resource-limited countries to meet high surgical burdens.

Keywords