Health Sector Strengthening Through Public Private Partnership ("PPP")

While great strides have been made in improving public access to and quality of healthcare in Sub-Saharan Africa, major problems persist, resulting in countless cases of suffering and loss of life among the region's women and children especially.   Chronic underfunding results in hospitals and health centers with cabinets bare of the drugs and supplies needed to save lives. Most rural people will never see a doctor in their lifetime, with the distribution of health facilities erratic and staffing shortages at emergency levels.  Some health centers have been boarded up and abandoned completely.  

Kissito’s International Operations are focused on one simple goal: Saving Lives Now. While others are debating Best Practices, Kissito is in the trenches, providing resources and working side-by-side with communities and their governments, to treat disease, heal wounds, and deliver  babies safely, every day.  Our action-based research model means we collect and analyze data daily, to ensure our facilities and every one we support has the personnel, drugs and supplies needed to get the job done now and for the long-term.  Kissito currently operates 9 hospitals, provides supplemental support to an additional 19 health facilities and nutrition support to 123 health facilities, in Ethiopia, Uganda, South Sudan and Somalia.  With the critical support of donors we are able treat over 338,000 patients a year with often life-saving services, while working to build brick by brick, stitch by stitch, stronger Public Health Systems.

The Kissito-led approach of Health Services Delivery System Strengthening is unique in its collaborative funding model and its intensive focus on institutional culture-building and behavior-change. The link between the two strategies is Kissito’s emphasis, indeed insistence, on multi-lateralism, partnering with government, NGOs and universities at every level to identify and address gaps in the Public Health Delivery System with low-cost, high-impact solutions. IMEC, a world leader in equipping resource-challenged hospitals with Complete Suites of high-quality, donated supplies and equipment, acts as Kissito’s non-profit Supply Chain arm.  IMEC has designed 45 ready-to-use medical suites, and through these have delivered over $250 million worth of new and refurbished medical equipment and supplies to hospitals in 80 countries. Kissito’s close relationship with IMEC (the organizations share Board members) ensures that for minimal capital investment, facilities and staff are empowered with everything necessary to care for patients effectively. 

By establishing long-term relationships with local health offices, we can understand the interrelated parts of a healthcare system, and work hand-in-hand with local people to achieve improved outcomes at all levels. Major highlights include:

Manafwa & Mbale Districts, Uganda: Comprehensive Health Sector Development Plan

• Kissito has teamed up with the Manafwa and Mbale Districts of Eastern Uganda to transform their public health sectors. Bugobero Hospital in rural Manafwa District, a Public-Private Partnership between Kissito and government, is proof of the power of partnership: the facility sees as many as 483 patients in a day, with 50-60 inpatients at any one time and over 50,000 outpatient visits a year, primarily women and children.  Unlike the majority of public hospitals and health centers in Uganda, Bugobero  features a robust, highly trained and committed national staff;  clean,  sanitary and comfortable patient wards;  shelves and closets that are painstakingly-managed and continuously stocked; and a  fully-functional, bustling Operating Theater. A Bugobero-headquartered fleet of motorcycle ambulances is busy bouncing over mountainous, muddy terrain to retrieve mothers in labor, while nurses in neighboring districts—including those at Mbale Regional Referral Hospital, the largest in Eastern Uganda—regularly refer their patients here. The facility boasts some of the best health outcomes in the country, and was recently deemed “a model health center” by the Minister of State for Health (General Duties) Dr. Richard Nduhura.   President Yoweri Museveni has pledged to upgrade Bugobero to a General Hospital.  
• Dr. Edward Sabiiti, Kissito's Chief Medical Officer for Uganda, was recently tapped by the district government to oversee the entire Manafwa Sub-district of Bubulo West. 

Kamashi Zone, Ethiopia

• Morris Cerullo Teaching Hospital is currently under construction. In addition to serving as the referral hospital for a population of 1 million, this hospital will grow teaching partnerships and serve as a training ground for the best of Ethiopia’s future medical workforce.

Sipara Maternal Child Health Hospital, Ethiopia

• Ethiopia’s bustling capitol of Addis Ababa is home to Kissito’s Sipara Hospital, the only hospital in Ethiopia focused solely on maternal, newborn and child health. Sipara has become a significant referral center for birthing complications and at-risk moms-to-be, with three highly skilled OB/GYN specialists and three Pediatricians as full-time staff. Kissito is proud that Sipara has some of the best health outcomes in East Africa, and never turns away a patient for lack of funds. Kissito plans to more than double Sipara’s 50-bed capacity by 2013 to better meet the needs of the women and children of Ethiopia.
• Over 40,000 mothers and children pass through Sipara’s doors each year, many who have been turned away from other hospitals due to inability to pay, or worse yet, the perception that they are too at-risk for death (hospitals do not wish for patients to die inside their walls, and often turn away the most acutely ill and injured patients).  Kissito acquired Sipara from Children’s Home Society Family Services, a respected U.S.-headquartered adoption and social services agency active in Ethiopia, in 2011. 

Below are some prime examples of Kissito's approach to Health System Strengthening interventions:

• Motorcycle Ambulance Referrals
• Station System Outreach Program
• Vacuum Extraction (“KIWI”)
• Surgical Capacity building
• Medical Equipment/Medical Supply/Essential Drug Provision through Low-Cost Global Donations
• Health and Nutrition Integration
• Sustainability Through Community Based Health Cooperatives
• Ongoing Leadership and Governance Development
• Establish Basic and Comprehensive EmONC Services
• Workforce Development/Sponsorship