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The 3-container hospital we’ve been building for Haiti is nearly ready to ship! This hospital will be operated by Aslan Youth Ministries, an organization working in the north-east of Haiti, within a mile of the border with the Dominican Republic.
Aslan Youth Ministries sought us out because our container hospital is ideal for the area they will be working in. With a fault line running right under where they work, steel shipping containers are much safer than a concrete structure.
We were able to work with them to optimize the design for their needs. One of the problems they told us about was the potential for traffic jams – because people aren’t used to regularly receiving medical care, teams are swamped with patients when they come. Even patients who aren’t really sick come to see the doctor, hoping to receive medicine that might help the next time they or their family members get sick. 
To deal with this, Aslan Youth Ministries has developed a color-coding triage system for patients: red, yellow, or green. “Green” patients don’t really need to see the doctor, so these patients will simply receive a small medical kit containing items like Tylenol and Pepto-Bismol – which are too costly for most Haitians to keep on hand. In fact, they’ll often buy just 1 or 2 Tylenol at a time, because it is too expensive for them to buy an entire bottle.
To help avoid traffic jams of these patients, we installed an exterior window into the pharmacy of the hospital, enabling “green” patients to come get their medicine without disrupting the flow of patients inside.
Although the container hospital will be staffed by visiting medical teams to begin with, in the future, it will be staffed by Haitian doctors. We’re considering partnering with them to send a medical team this coming winter. If you’re interested in joining us on this trip or on our August 2011 trip to Haiti, send an email to info@hospitalsofhope.org or give us a call at 316.262.0964.
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