Written by Dr. Craig Czarsty, President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of HHI
I just got back from my eighth medical service trip to the Dominican Republic and this was the most satisfying of all. HHI has been building a chronic care program and increasing the number of patients in it. We have reached the point that on this trip most of the patients seen were by appointment only. The trip in May will be entirely by appointment. While this may not seem like much of an accomplishment to those who are used to electronic medical records and requesting appointments by email, it is a really big deal for us in the D.R. It means that each patient we see has a chart that contains not only previous clinic visits but interim reports of visits to the patients by the cooperadores and the International Program Team. We know of no other NGO on the north coast doing likewise. Special thanks to Janelle, Rachel and Tracy of the IPT who make everything run so smoothly.
Speaking of the cooperadores, it is particularly gratifying to see how far they have come. For the first time, they worked in intake and triage during the clinics. More importantly, they accompanied the patients they follow to their appointments with the docs. This allowed them to hear firsthand what the docs told the patients so they could help reinforce the message over the next four months until the next medical service trip. The cooperadores are an amazing group of motivated individuals who are anxious to make a difference in their own communities.
We had a veteran group of physicians with us, Brad Wilkinson (Vice President of HHI), Stacy Taylor, Sandra Hughes and Anne Brewer. The QU Physician Assistant students rolled up their sleeves and jumped right in. They are a great asset to HHI. The Tufts undergraduates stayed very busy with their public health project.
On a personal note, I was very proud to have two special people accompany us on the trip. Marc Bouffard is a fourth year medical student at Tufts and he is the one who got me involved in the Dominican Republic in the first place. He called me way back in 2004 and asked if I would like to accompany a medical trip with him. The rest, as they say, is history. Also joining us was my daughter, Mary Frances, who went to high school with Marc so I suppose without her Marc wouldn’t have known me! Mary is HHI’s web master and came on her first trip to observe the operations and take pictures for the website.
It has been an amazing journey for HHI so far and I am really excited about the work we are doing and the direction we are headed.
Incredible to think this is your 8th trip Craig, and what a true testament to how far we’ve all come for you to call it the most satisfying. Thank you for sharing your insight with us. Cheers to Marc and Mary Frances as well.
Craig, It was wonderful working with you again. Thanks for all your hard work and for allowing me to play a small role.