Working towards Health Equity and Access in Rural Nepal
Posted in Social Justice and Health on Mar 24th, 2012
Posted by Sheela Maru The sun penetrated deep into our chilled bodies as we talked on the lawn outside the delivery room of Bayalpata Hospital. We found our first study participant there, with her 6 hour old infant, basking in the hot, therapeutic rays. She answered our foreign questions meekly with a slightly confused look. We were probing [...]
Posted in Clinic Staff, Mortality Reviews, Social Justice and Health on Mar 18th, 2012
Posted by Richa Pokhrel An amazing thing has happened here at the hospital, something I didn’t think would happen in my first month here. When I first arrived at the hospital, I noticed that Buddha dai, our groundskeeper, never ate with the rest of the staff. I was very confused by this because he lived [...]
Posted in Patient Stories on Mar 12th, 2012
Posted by Duncan Maru An 18-year-old man presented recently with swelling and pain over his right forearm after a fall. I was asked by one of our Health Assistants, Ram, to look at his x-ray. About a week prior, he had been carrying a stone on his head for some construction when he tripped and fell. Curiously, in [...]
Posted in Logistics and Management on Mar 10th, 2012
Posted by Duncan Maru Owing to uncertain travel times, it is typically wise to anticipate spending about 36 hours in Kathmandu after leaving Achham. I am thus left trying to squeeze as many meetings and tasks as possible out of my trip. During my previous “exit trip,” four weeks before with Agya Poudyal, we had [...]
Posted in Clinic Staff on Mar 7th, 2012
Posted by Richa Pokhrel ————————– Richa was born in Nepal but grew up in Iowa. She is currently the Director of Evaluation and Research at Nyaya Health. Richa has a Master’s in International Development from the University of Pittsburgh. Tweet This Post
Posted in Logistics and Management, Patient Stories on Mar 4th, 2012
Posted by Aarti Bhatt [The following is an example of Nyaya’s teamwork approach to providing the best care to patients. These case studies were discussed via our international listserv, to provide a spectrum of professional input.] Case 1: A 38 year old female with four days of fever, cough, and epigastric discomfort. Hemoglobin on admission [...]
Posted in Patient Stories on Mar 1st, 2012
Posted by Gregory Karelas The patient was of a young woman who presented to the Emergency Department (ED) with rectal bleeding for the third time this month. I watched our doctors go through preliminary check-ups and interventions with her at the end of the work day, and then left for my office, confident that all [...]
Posted in Clinic Staff on Feb 29th, 2012
Posted by Tess Panizales ————- Tess Panizales is the Quality Program Manager of the Department of Surgery at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Center for Surgery and Public Health. Tweet This Post
Posted in Patient Stories on Feb 26th, 2012
Posted by Aarti Bhatt A 9-year-old girl presented with an 8 month history of rash on the extensor surface of her legs, chest, arms and face. As per her father’s report, the rash began as small papules (see picture of knee) and worsened over time. In the last 5 months the family has tried various [...]
Posted in Logistics and Management on Feb 24th, 2012
Posted by Ruma Rajbhandari When Dhan Bahadur, our X-ray Technician, called us over and told us that our X-ray machine was broken, I was shocked. This was the WHIS-RAD, the extremely durable and safe machine promoted by the World Health Organization, for being perfect for resource-poor settings. It was supposed to last for many years, not [...]
Posted in Logistics and Management, Social Justice and Health on Feb 17th, 2012
Posted by Dan Schwarz After being absent from Bayalpata for nearly six months, I returned in late December with great excitement to see the many changes and steps forward that have transpired since I’ve been gone. And indeed, I have not been met with disappointment. While our staff had continued to work diligently, serving the [...]
Posted in Social Justice and Health on Feb 15th, 2012
Posted by Tess Panizales ————- Tess Panizales is the Quality Program Manager of the Department of Surgery at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital Center for Surgery and Public Health. Tweet This Post
Posted in Mortality Reviews, Patient Stories on Feb 13th, 2012
Posted by Duncan Maru Here is a man we can help. He’s a forty-two year old farmer and migrant worker to India who is extremely sick, but fixable. I first heard about him a few minutes ago from one of our superb Health Assistant, Chanakya, who found me while I was going through expired medicines [...]
Posted in Logistics and Management on Feb 6th, 2012
Posted by Duncan Maru I interact with our patients briefly, in the context of a consultation by one of our clinical team members. For most of the patients with whom I consult, I will never know whether we had the right diagnosis or the right treatment. Without a clear mechanism for following up with our patients, I [...]
Posted in Patient Stories on Feb 5th, 2012
Posted by Duncan Maru A middle-aged woman presented with abdominal pain, bloating, and vaginal bleeding. A few years ago, she had had some gynecologic surgery in India where her son was working. They had no records of the procedure, nor did they know of what precisely the surgery had entailed. She had suffered no fever or weight loss. Our [...]