Partnership with Purdue

I'm happy to announce HDI's new partnership with Purdue University to provide continuing education units for four new workshops. Beginning in 2010, HDI will offer on-site workshops for three days each on Leadership, Management, Sustainability and Service. Healthcare leaders from Honduras and China are expressing initial interest for the workshops. We're also exploring options for online versions of the workshops to reach a wider audience. Watch the HDI website for further details.

HDI Fellows Program

We're working on an exciting new project to develop an intensive training experience for health care leaders from developing and transitional countries. The HDI Fellows Program will bring together high-potential health care leaders to the U.S. to visit some of the top hospitals, interact with leading thinkers in the field, and discover the personal and professional qualities required for sustainable leadership. The program will begin with leaders from rural Chinese hospitals with publicity assistance from the Loving Heart Hospital Project led by Chinese businessman, John Cao. We'll also be seeking grant support for the multi-year project, in the hope that we can measure the impact of the program over time. We hope the initial program will begin in 2010.

The Fellows Program will go far beyond the basic management skills workshop for which HDI has become known. Our goal is to draw out the best in selected leaders so they can draw out the best in those they lead. High-impact leaders serve as models for managers and staff to emulate, mobilizing ordinary organizations to accomplish extraordinary results.

Romania Project Reaches Capacity

I made my 20th trip in ten years to Romania this month to lead a strategic planning meeting for the Dr. Luca Medical Center. We opened the doors to this multi-specialty clinic in 2000, and last year we reached our capacity with 85,000 visits. Remarkable! The organization is healthy and well, and we're beginning to look at expanded facility options.

My wife and I were joined on this trip by HDI Board member Ron Stuursma and his wife, Nadine. They visited the Dr. Luca Medical Center in Pitesti, then journeyed on to consult with a project in Galati that I visited last year. Later this year we'll mobilize other HDI volunteers for trips to China (August) and India (October).

A few days after returning from Europe, we held our 2009 HDI Volunteer Orientation session in Holland, MI, preparing another ten volunteer consultants, managers and physicians to participate as trainers and mentors for health care leaders in developing countries. I'm impressed with the quality of people that want to join us in this ministry and the commitments they're willing to make. HDI is clearly gaining traction as a valuable resource for hospitals and clinics in developing countries.

Cambodia Calling

I just completed an excellent week helping a pediatric hospital in Siem Reap, Cambodia explore ways of becoming sustainable. Angkor Hospital for Children is walking a fine line. They have a solid ten-year reputation for clinical and teaching excellence, but they are fully dependent on foundations, donors and grants for operations while seeing the needs of impoverished farmers in the region grow.

I got acquainted with the leadership team and concluded that they have excellent potential for development. One of the keys to sustainability is for the local community to take psychological ownership of the business. I think the Khmer leaders can get there with a bit of training and mentoring. Another key is to understand what people can afford. I interviewed patients through a translator to discern that 7 out of 8 can probably afford to contribute to the cost of their care.

I worked closely with Dr. Bill Housworth, the American Med/Peds physician who has been the Executive Director at AHC a little over a year. Bill has quickly earned the respect of his team, and we discussed options for HDI to return for management training and strategic planning as the hospital moves toward a user-fee structure. Our financial projections proved the need to diversify the income sources and to plan for increased capacity.

This project was - and could continue to be - an excellent fit for HDI. We focus on helping hospitals like AHC become self-sustaining through sound management practices and wise planning. A little effort from HDI will go a long way toward making sure this hospital will stay in service to those who need it most. That is HDI's calling - to serve hospitals like AHC in Cambodia, and others like it around the globe.

A Look Back; a Look Ahead

2008 has been a landmark year, but 2009 already holds great promise for Health Development International. Check out the annual report link on the left side of the home page for a look at where we've come with workshops, growing invitations for service, new volunteers and an expanding donor base. HDI is gaining recognition for its unique mission, despite the global economic challenges (or maybe because of them...)

As we look ahead, let me share a few highlights that we'll be telling about in the next annual report:

1. We're planning teaching and consulting trips to Cambodia, Romania, China and India in 2009.
2. Volunteers will be joining on three of these trips, so we're starting to expand our capacity for service.
   
3. We'll have our second Volunteer Orientation in May, hoping to train another 10-15 volunteer healthcare managers and consultants.
4. We're building relationships with other organizations like the International Hospital Federation, the International Training and Education Center on HIV, the Global Health Council and others. These relationships are likely to pave the way for more relevant invitations and meaningful collaborations around the globe in the coming years.
5. Our client in China will also be sending a delegation of hospital executives to the Philippines to see the hospital of HDI's founder, Dr. Rufi Macagba. Visits like these help executives visualize the effects of sound management and inspire them to share ideas with their own hospitals.

We continue to get inquiries each month from healthcare organizations around the world. Thank you for helping us respond to them through donations and volunteer commitments. We hope that future funding sources may include contracts and grants as well.

International Hospital Federation and HDI Team Up in China

After teaching the Effective Hospital Management workshop to 25 Chinese TB hospital managers, I am overwhelmed with a sense of fulfillment and gratitude for the role HDI is playing to improve health around the globe. The International Hospital Federation sponsored this one week conference November 17-22 with a grant from Eli Lilly and Co. to develop the management skills for TB hospital leaders across the country.

China leads the world in the prevalence of multiple drug resistant TB (MDR-TB) with government hospitals in every province filled to capacity and community-based detection programs stressed by limited resources. The highly contagious airborne pulmonary disease has the potential to become a global epidemic unless it is contained in the volatile environments of developing countries. The purpose of this workshop was to equip hospital and program leaders with management skills and insights to leverage their potential in the battle against the disease.

Their responsiveness proved that HDI is offering a uniquely valuable service. The managers represented almost 6,000 inpatient beds, plus outpatient clinics, and over 8,000 employees serving hundreds of thousands of patients in more than 20 provinces. The conference hosted representatives from South Africa and India as well where MDR-TB is also on the rise. Wise management of resources has the potential to prevent the spread of the disease to millions. Infection rates are already as high as 45% in places like China. Keeping those infections from becoming active, contagious cases will require management excellence at every level. HDI is beginning to play a small but critical role in the fight against the threat of a global epidemic.

The experience of this workshop affirmed some positive directions for HDI:

• Participants appreciated the interactive teaching method, case studies and group projects. The HDI approach is a welcome change from didactic traditions, leaving them both informed and inspired to share with others.
• The course improvements won high praise, but constructive feedback also showed the need for continuing development of the curriculum.
• Developing relationships with the International Hospital Federation, Eli Lilly and Co., and TB program leaders in both South Africa and India have the potential to expand HDI’s global role significantly in the next few years.
• We are leveraging the impact of HDI’s voluntary efforts by sharing the workshop materials freely. We are training each participant to be a trainer in his/her own facilities, sparking an “epidemic” of wise management.

By the end of the week, I received invitations to South Africa and India, and positive affirmations for the potential of more workshops and mentoring relationships in China. It’s an exciting time for HDI.

Training of Trainers Conference

The first HDI Training-of-Trainers conference has just concluded with resounding success. Two dozen volunteer health care managers, consultants, physicians, nurses and other supporters met for three days at the Haworth Inn and Conference Center in Holland, Michigan to learn about the opportunities for making a difference with HDI. Medical missionaries from Latin America, Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe shared their stories to illustrate the needs for health care management training. As the President of HDI, it was my honor to introduce the Effective Health Care Management workshop materials and coordinate practice training exercises to give each participant some familiarity with the role of an HDI trainer. I also presented perspectives on how to develop sustainable health care services in poor countries, emphasizing the critical role HDI can play to bring health care programs where they can have the greatest impact.

Participants came from nine states and three other countries, with Kenyan physician, Dr. Thomas Odeny, winning the award for coming the greatest distance. Each person was challenged to discern the roles they can best fill with HDI as trainers, mentors, and those who can make introductions to ministries and supporters. We also shared ideas for refining and expanding the training materials to increase their value for hospitals and clinic in the two-thirds world.

I came away with a deep sense of gratitude for this calling, for the commitment of talented volunteers and for the historical foundations of HDI under Dr. Rufi Macagba. But my most poignant observation was the overwhelming magnitude of the need for health care management training in developing countries and the impact HDI can achieve by training and mentoring targeted organizations to become models of business and clinical excellence. I was also struck that HDI appears to be the ONLY organization equipped to meet the long-recognized need for health care management training in developing countries. We have been given stewardship of a sacred - and huge - calling.

This training-of-trainers conference was the first for HDI, but it will not be the last. There are already about a dozen people who have expressed interest in being trained that could not attend this time. We'll use feedback from this experience to plan the next one, and it will need to be scheduled soon, based on the growing list of invitations.

We are planning the next workshop to be presented in Soddo, Ethiopia, October 20-23, and have just received an invitation to Uganda the following week. November will find me in Beijing, China, leading 25 TB hospital managers through the workshop as well as training five trainers from South Africa and India. We're waiting for a response to our proposal to conduct the workshop in Guatemala in December, and tentatively making plans for trips to India and Kazakhstan in 2009. We are receiving about 2-3 inquiries per month for HDI training assistance.

I want to thank all who participated in the HDI conference, including those who worked behind the scenes. The three HDI interns and my Executive Assistant, Beth Vander Goot, did an excellent job managing hundreds of details. Scott and Deb Witteveen helped with the picnic and my wife, Marybeth, and HDI Board members pitched in with transportation services. I am grateful to God for this ministry. It is fulfilling at the highest level, and the best is yet to come.