On 20 June, a loud burst of applause marked a milestone at the University of Gondar (UOG), in northern Ethiopia—and for the country’s continuing work to provide high quality health care to its citizens.
Dr. Mengesha Admassu, President of the University of Gondar, discusses plans for the new Comprehensive Outpatient Center with Dr. King Holmes, Principal Investigator of I-TECH and Chair of the UW Department of Global Health, during a visit to Seattle in September, 2010.
Delegates from Ethiopian partner organizations, UOG, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the University of Washington gathered to officially break ground for the UOG’s new Comprehensive Outpatient Center (COC). After months of planning, the event readies the university and the CDC to begin construction on the center, part of a larger health complex also in construction. The three-story, 6,700-square-meter facility will include over 70 exam rooms, a full emergency department, and lecture and classroom facilities. I-TECH and the University of Washington, through funding from the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, have provided technical assistance, planning support, and consultation for building and design.
In communities around the world, university hospitals play a unique role in supporting improved health care. These facilities often provide care that isn’t available elsewhere, offer a central location to introduce and disseminate new and newly-available methodologies, and provide training for health care workers. The University of Gondar hospital, which serves an area of five million people in the Amhara region of the country, is no exception. The facility already provides care for thousands of patients, serves as a referral facility, and provides specialized care for HIV, antiretroviral treatment and support, and infectious diseases, including tuberculosis. It also provides hands-on teaching experience for new generations of Ethiopian health care workers and continuing medical education to help practicing clinicians stay up-to-date.
With the new COC facility, hospital leaders and the Ethiopian Ministry of Health anticipate reaching an even greater number of Ethiopians, graduating larger classes of much-needed health care workers, and continuing to support working clinicians by providing training and resources. University leaders and partners also designed the facility to coordinate and bring together different health care services (including emergency care) in one location, allowing health care workers to provide more efficient care and avoid duplication of effort.
The new facility will allow the university to scale-up services to meet a wide variety of Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education goals, including
- training 288 medical students and 144 nurses or health officers per year;
- training laboratory, pharmacy and radiology technicians;
- providing medical services to 369,500 patients each year;
- offering specialty training in HIV and infectious diseases;
- serving as a model for best practices in clinical care and clinic operation; and
- providing increased medical capacity for the Amhara region.
In addition, the COC will serve as a key regional referral center and national and regional resource for continuing professional development for health care workers.
A computer rendering of plans for the new outpatient facility
Spotlight: Designing a Facility to Meet Diverse Needs
To design the new Comprehensive Outpatient Center at the University of Gondar, I-TECH, UOG leaders, architects, and experts at the University of Washington sat down together to think around the complex needs of a multi-purpose clinical and teaching facility.
The result was a building customized to the actual needs of students, health care workers, and patients. For example, sloped entrances make it much easier to reach the building—easing a clear, but often-overlooked obstacle. In addition, the design of the building promotes the flow of air, a simple and effective way to limit or prevent the spread of airborne infections such as tuberculosis. Because the building is also a teaching facility, the team also created a design that includes classrooms, a lecture hall, exam rooms, a laboratory, and a library; allowing the COC to function both as a “hub” for quality patient care and a high-level teaching facility.
For more information about I-TECH’s programming in Ethiopia, please visit our Ethiopia page.
