COVER STORY
home. The ASC has three operating rooms, seven overnight recovery bays, a dental clinic and an eye clinic. Mer- lin Antúnez, MD, an orthopedic sur- geon, is our full-time, on-site medical director. In 2017, we impacted more than 7,000 lives in Honduras. Our weeklong medical missions include physicians, other clinical par- ticipants, nonclinical participants, and family members. We host one or two medical mission teams each month, with up to 60 volunteers per team. Typi- cally, about half of each team is clini- cal personnel with approximately seven physicians, 20 nurses and two sterile processors. Currently, all medical mis- sions take place at the ASC in Hondu- ras, and we had more than 26,000 hours of volunteered labor in 2017. Our educational programs take place at our conference center in Hon- duras. Recently, we had a CRNA who went down for the 17th time, and hosted a training program for the Hon- duran anesthetists and provided con- tinued training. Our focus on educa- tion, training and capacity-building assures that we are not only filling a gap in the current medical system but also investing in the future of surgical care for the countries we serve.
What is your nonprofit’s primary goal? CUNNINGHAM: Regulators and state officials had very limited knowl- edge of the benefits of ASCs and the role they play in the health system. We used material from ASCA, industry journals, the Medicare Payment Advi- sory Commission (MedPAC) and peer reviewed studies that documented the benefits of lower costs, greater efficiency and equal or better qual- ity to hospital outpatient departments (HOPD). We provide world-class sur- gical care to underserved communi- ties and empower volunteers to make a positive impact on global health. We are committed to sustainability, education and collaboration with our
One World Surgery’s medical mission volunteer team ready for the February 2018 trip to Honduras.
A patient with Juan Carlos Carias, One World Surgery preop/postop nurse, at Holy Family Surgery Center in Honduras in February 2018.
community partners. We focus heav- ily on forming local partnerships and capacity-building, with our surgical medical missions serving as a catalyst. While our fully-functioning Hondu- ran staff leads the surgery center that serves patients on a daily basis, volun- teers provide additional personnel sup- port, education, and an extension into specialty services. This allows us to assure that patients are offered the con-
William Fessler, DDS, volunteer dentist, at Holy Family Surgery Center in Honduras in February 2018.
tinuity of care that is essential to suc- cessful outcomes.
What can ASCs do to help? CUNNINGHAM: The program needs more nurses—RNs and nursing circu- lators—to volunteer in Honduras. It also needs monetary support and dona- tions of supplies and equipment. Visit
https://oneworldsurgery.org for more information.
ASC FOCUS JUNE/JULY 2018 |
www.ascfocus.org 11
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