223244 Next generation of PEPFAR supports an Ethiopian University and a US University partnership to design a state-of-the-art outpatient care and teaching facility in Gondar, Ethiopia

Tuesday, November 9, 2010 : 10:48 AM - 11:06 AM

Scott Barnhart, MD, MPH , International Training and Education Center for Health, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Christine Kiefer, BArch, MID , Director of Planning, Harborview Medical Center, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
Getechew Feleke, MD , I-TECH Ethiopia, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Ann Downer, EdD, MS , Department of Global Health, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
  
The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) calls for the training of 140,000 new health care workers in low-income settings. With PEPFAR support through the US CDC and HRSA, the Gondar College of Medicine has partnered with I-TECH Ethiopia and the University of Washington (UW) to establish a Comprehensive Outpatient Center in Gondar, Ethiopia. The new facility is designed to offer 369,250 visits per year and train 285 health care students per year.

I-TECH, with headquarters at UW and a local office in Ethiopia, provided technical expertise in the form of institutional master planning, conceptual architectural drawing, patient and material flow, and construction design. The US$5 million 3-story, 52,500 square foot facility will include emergency services, diagnostic services, pharmacy, outpatient specialty clinics, and teaching facilities. The facility will meet international building code guidelines, where appropriate.

Ethiopia's Amhara region, north of Addis Ababa and with a population of 18.6 million, is served by 18 hospitals, 130 physicians, and 2,000 nurses. Given the World Health Organization's recommended minimum standard of 2.3 health workers per 1,000 population (2006 World Health Report), the region finds itself short of the bare minimum health staffing figures by about half.

Design considerations included patient flow, number of students, infection control, and minimizing the life cycle cost of the facility through sustainable and “green” systems such as passive lighting strategies and, potentially, rainwater collection. Participants will share lessons learned about working effectively across borders, academic institutions, linguistic and cultural traditions, and with governmental and non-governmental partners.

Learning Areas:
Provision of health care to the public
Public health or related organizational policy, standards, or other guidelines

Learning Objectives:
1) Identify the new health system strengthening goals in the U.S. PEPFAR funding initiative. 2) Describe the factors to consider when planning a health care facility that will incorporate teaching activities in a low-income country. 3) Evaluate the problems associated with rapid scale-up of health worker teaching capacity in low-income countries.

Keywords: Public Health Infrastructure, Health Workers Training

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Qualified on the content I am responsible for because: I am qualified to present because I oversee the design of the facility in Gondar, Ethiopia, that will offer health care to the public and training to new health care workers.
Any relevant financial relationships? No

I agree to comply with the American Public Health Association Conflict of Interest and Commercial Support Guidelines, and to disclose to the participants any off-label or experimental uses of a commercial product or service discussed in my presentation.

Back to: 4104.0: Best practices: Strengthening the public sector and integrating care to improve health in low-income countries