Haiti calls for international aid after devastating earthquake

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Source: Miami Herald

Amidst a COVID surge, ongoing political upheaval and civil unrest, Haiti has been faced now with the strain of a 7.2-magnitude earthquake, displacing and injuring thousands of its citizens, and with a death toll thus far approaching 2,000. An already stretched and under-resourced healthcare system is calling for international aid to help Haitian communities through this crisis.

First COVID PPE Donation sent!

The first of many planned PPE donations is on its way to help providers in Haiti safely combat the rise of COVID in its communities. Thank you for your support! Contribute now to the campaign to help us save lives!

Thank you to our partners, the Bruno family, who are facilitating getting supplies in the hands of Haitian providers!

Welcome our new Local Administrator!

EMEDEX welcomes Mme. Wilmine Glaude Jean Baptiste to the team!  Mme. Wilmine is from Cap Haitien, has worked extensively with the MSPP and in public health, and brings these skills and experience to our work in the Northeast.  We are excited to have her on board!

Pilot First Responder Project Underway!

As one of the poorest regions of Haiti, prehospital emergency care in the North East is often inaccessible.  While an Emergency Medical Service is under development in the region, its use is not yet widespread.  One barrier to use is the limited ability of ambulances to access remote areas with incomplete road infrastructure.

EMEDEX International is an organization whose mission is to advance emergency care.  It seeks to do this through locally relevant programs aimed at improving communities’ skills and knowledge in emergency care.  Previous work by EMEDEX in the region has identified that most sick and injured individuals present to the hospital either on foot or via motorcycle taxi.  Through EMEDEX-supported community member-led training, motorcycle drivers and taxi drivers have been taught locally adapted first responder skills.  Since being trained in these skills, 20% of the drivers have reported transporting individuals in need to healthcare facilities.

In partnership with the North East Ministry of Health and the local Emergency Medical Services (EMS), EMEDEX International will engage the existing cadre of previously trained drivers to become an identifiable, community-based first responder force.  These drivers will be dispatched via the regional call center and will coordinate with the EMS service to get seriously ill or injured people to the hospital via ambulance.

By building capacity within communities to handle medical emergencies and to access the help that is available, EMEDEX International plans to improve prehospital emergency care.

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Capacity Building and Quality Improvement at Fort Liberté Hospital

The North East Department of Haiti is one of the most resource-constrained regions of Haiti, and capacity in existing health centers is limited.  Fort Liberté hospital is the referral hospital for the North East, receiving critically ill and injured individuals from health centers throughout the region.  The Emergency Department of the hospital is limited in its ability to provide time-sensitive and life-saving interventions through a lack of material resources and limited training in emergency care and resuscitation.

EMEDEX International is a US-based organization composed of Emergency Medicine physicians, which works to advance high-quality emergency care globally.  The organization has been working in the North East Department of Haiti for approximately a decade on programs aimed at building emergency care capacity, and through its time there has formed partnerships with local health champions.  These partners, including Fort Liberté Hospital and the Ministry of Health for the North East Department, have asked EMEDEX International to assist in improving care in the Emergency Department of the Fort Liberté Hospital.

Through an educational exchange program, EMEDEX International will sponsor senior residents in Emergency Medicine to spend approximately a month at a time at Fort Liberté’s Emergency Department.  By functioning as part of a clinical team that emphasizes bidirectional learning, the residents will introduce emergency medicine topics such as triage, trauma evaluations, resuscitation, and bedside ultrasound, while learning about clinical presentations common in the North East of Haiti and developing a systems-based approach to quality improvement at the hospital.

EMEDEX International, with the support of these visiting residents, will be able to direct capacity-building efforts within the Emergency Department through a long-term, locally based approach to building high-quality emergency care.

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Official Campaign Opened for Involved Citizens Project!

November 19, 2016:

There is no prehospital emergency care available in Northeast Haiti. Motorcycle taxi drivers are the primary transport mechanism. In times like the recent Hurricane Matthew, patients who are unable to reach a clinic or hospital for an emergency risk significant illness or even death.

EMEDEX International is a not-for-profit dedicated to strengthening Haiti’s healthcare from within through the Involved Citizen Project . This initiative teaches basic emergency care and teaching skills to Haitian citizens. Using a “train-the-trainer” model, EMEDEX recently graduated 22 trainers who can teach first aid skills to more members of their community. The majority of trainers have expressed commitment to continuing this work. As one of the trainers, Jean Baptiste Leandre, put it “I want to train people so that they can save other people’s lives.”

Now EMEDEX needs help funding the classes that these 22 trainers will teach. EMEDEX is focusing on training motorcycle taxi drivers because they are the primary emergency transport system in Northeast Haiti.

Each training session is funded by five $50 donations , which covers the cost of facilitating classes, including printing of manuals and purchasing teaching supplies for one year. The total fundraising goal is $5700.

Use of the train-the-trainer model has the potential to exponentially increase the teaching of basic emergency medical skills in the Northeast Haitian community. By investing in local Haitian trainers you are expanding the resources and skillset of this community. Help EMEDEX International achieve this goal.

Visit our fundraising page to donate today!

Emergency Ultrasound Training in Fort Liberte, Haiti

April 2016:

EMEDEX completed emergency ultrasound training this month for a group of selected providers at the public hospitals of Fort Liberte and Ouanaminthe.  The training curriculum focused on rapid, focused evaluation of trauma and obstetric patients, two populations for which emergency ultrasound can significantly impact immediate decision making and resource allocation. The course was taught by specialized emergency physicians, trained in emergency ultrasound, and was taught in Haitian Creole, along with an illustrated manual adapted by EMEDEX and translated to French.  Providers will subsequently be performing ultrasounds and receive feedback on the images they have obtained for quality assurance and continued training.  A refresher course is planned for the coming year to review the providers’ skills and solidify their knowledge.