Best Hospital

I forgot to write about this a couple weeks ago when it happened, but Tansen was recently awarded the "Best Hospital" award for 2012 by a Kathmandu-based health magazine. Dr Rachel, our medical director, went to Kathmandu to receive the award, and a whole lot of people gathered in the Tansen Guesthouse to watch the broadcast on TV.  Unfortunately I was on call, so I missed it, but by all reports it was a great event, and a real boost to hospital staff morale, both bideshi and Nepali.

Here's the article from our hospital website that talks about it:

A few weeks ago a journalist called the hospital and said he would like to interview the director about an award.  It was a complete surprise when he told us that this hospital had been awarded the Best Hospital Award from ‘Swasthiya Kabar Patrika”, a monthly health magazine.  This is a national award and the selection committee had evaluated various nominated hospitals before deciding that ours was best.

The annual Health Awards ceremony was held at the Everest Hotel in Kathmandu on the evening of Sunday 22nd July and was broadcast live on Nepal TV. It was almost like a mini Oscar awards ceremony! Eight different people received an award to recognize their contribution to specific areas of health in Nepal.

"And the award for the Best Hospital goes to... United Mission Hospital Tansen."

It was a proud moment for Rachel Karrach, as the Tansen Hospital Director, to go up on the stage and receive the award from the Minister of Health on behalf of all the staff at the hospital who work so hard.  There was an opportunity for Rachel to say a few words about what makes this hospital different. In her acceptance speech she was able to tell people that our motto is “We serve, Jesus heals”.  We want the glory to go to Him for our success, and also give thanks to all the hospital staff, whose faithful service has enabled this hospital to be the best hospital in Nepal.

Many hospital staff and local Tansen people were watching the program on TV and everyone was very excited that our work had been recognized and that this has put our town on the map.  It was so encouraging and affirming for the hospital's (and UMN's) almost 60 years of service in Tansen to be recognized and applauded.

For photos of the ceremony, please use this address:  http://www.umn.org.np/new/view_album.php?album_id=30

On another note, here are some photos I took in the OR the other day, just to give you all a flavour.

Chandra is our OR charge nurse. Here she is checking out the white board with the list of cases for the day. It's a pretty quiet day in the Tansen OR by the looks of it - often the board is full! The printing is pretty small, but here is the list of cases for the day:
Ortho:
Open Reduction Internal Fixation (ORIF) Supracondylar fracture (1 1/2 year old child)
ORIF Supracondylar fracture and distal radioulnar fracture (7 year child)
ORIF distal radius (6 years old)
Lateral Condyle fracture ORIF (8 years old...yes, it does seem like a pediatric service today!)
ORIF finger fracture (?age)
General Surg:
2 pediatric hernias (that were already done so erased from the board)
Interval appendectomy
Right partial, possible total, nephrectomy (removal of kidney for big symptomatic cyst)
Debridement hand infection (this hand won the "worst hand in the world award" - awarded by ME!)
Foot laceration debridement

This board tells us about the availability of blood in the blood bank, as well as whose OR and on call duty it is that day. How do we stock our blood bank? Well, every patient who needs an operation has to have a family member or friend donate one unit of blood to the blood bank before they can have their surgery, unless it's an emergency, or a really small operation. And hospital staff blood types are also fairly public knowledge...you may just get a call in the middle of the night if there is an emergency need for your particular blood type. Hasn't happened to me yet...

We do have anaesthetic machines, and use halothane gas when a general anaesthetic is needed. We have one Nepali MD Anaesthetist, and the rest are all nurses who have done anaesthesia technician training. They're very good at what they do, and we train people here (the guy who is "bagging" the patient is a student, and the guy in the blue is one of the senior technicians). We don't have ventilators in the OR so all patients with general anaesthesia have to have someone sitting there "bagging" them throughout the case. We do a lot of cases under spinal or other regional anaesthesia to avoid this.

Sita is one of the OR nurses. Today she is staffing the recovery room. There are 2 "monitors" in the recovery room, where you can measure oxygen saturations and heart rates. But there are many more beds than that! 

Repairing a supracondylar fracture on a young girl. The assistant is one of the interns (in her last year of medical school, essentially the equivalent of a clinical clerk back home), and the main surgeon is a guy who finished his internship here at Tansen and then stayed on as a "Resident Medical Officer" in orthopedics. He has been here almost 2 years, and is functioning very capably and often independently. He is in the process of trying to get into a "proper" orthopedics residency training program, but there are many barriers to this, and the extensive experience he has gotten here will not be counted at all towards his training requirements. We have a couple doctors like that at the moment (the other is on General Surgery, and is also excellent). It's really difficult to get residency positions in Nepal unless you know someone and/or have a lot of money! Many end up going elsewhere (often to China), where it's easier to get a training spot, but the training isn't as good. It's really too bad, because some of these doctors are fantastic!