Gaus David
Organization: Andean Health and Development
Year Founded: 1996
Country: USA
Website: www.andeanhealth.org
Andean Health and Development (AHD) is fundamentally changing rural health in Ecuador by providing quality medical care to patients today, but also by emphasizing the education of tomorrow’s rural health care leaders. Focus: Health Geographic Area of Impact: Ecuador Model: Hybrid Non-Profit Number of Direct Beneficiaries: 20,000 (2009) Annual Budget: US$ 557,700 Percentage Earned Revenue: 62% Recognition: Regional Social Entrepreneur of the Year, Latin America, 2010 Background Rural Ecuadorian populations face a range of health care issues rooted in social, economic, and political determinants. A major issue for rural populations is the relative lack of access to high quality, hospital-based care. Though primary care as a strategy has accomplished much in the developing world, including Ecuador, women continue to suffer and often die from pregnancy complications and children die at alarming rates of infectious diseases. The nearest hospitals are typically hours away from major cities, forcing sick villagers to overcome geographic, economic, and cultural barriers to seek care in far-away tertiary hospital. These barriers result in fewer than half of rural inhabitants utilizing the current system. Those who are willing and able to pay for such services would greatly prefer to receive quality care in their own community if such hospitals were available to them. Innovation and Activities Currently, AHD runs two hospitals, Hospital Pedro Vicente Maldonado (PVM) and Hospital La Maná, and construction of a third hospital will begin next year. Three aspects of AHD’s approach represent innovations in rural hospital care: financial sustainability, high standard of care, and the education young doctors and nurses to be effective leaders in rural health care. AHD’s hospitals are financially sustainable and do not generate any operating deficits. The hospitals are community-based with local staff supported completely with the efficient use of local funds, through a public-private partnership with the Ministry of Health and the Social Security Administration. At these hospitals AHD is raising the standard of care by utilizing the best medical and administrative practices available. The hospitals provide 24-hour care and utilize technology to streamline processes and procedures. Hospital PVM functions with 100 percent electronic medical records. The training component of AHD’s work involves comprehensive education of the best medical and administrative practices for the physician residents and the nursing students. These programs are conducted in partnership with the Catholic University of Ecuador’s Medical School and the Luis Vargas Torres University Nursing School. Professionals in training follow the comprehensive AHD Manual. This differentiates AHD doctors and nurses from those who work in the traditional public health sector, where formal residency training is not required. Physicians are generally hired directly from medical school with little or no hands-on experience. The Entrepreneur Dr. David Gaus attended Notre Dame where he received a BA in Accounting in 1984. After a soul-searching conversation with then University President, Theodore M. Hesburgh, David traveled to Quito, Ecuador and volunteered for two years at “The Working Boys Center.” In Ecuador, he witnessed the marginalization of a population of mostly women and children who, he would later learn, lacked access to even basic health services. David’s life had changed forever. He returned to the U.S. where he re-enrolled at Notre Dame to complete pre-med studies and then he attended Tulane Medical School. In 1992, David earned his M.D. and his Master’s in Public Health and Tropical Medicine from Tulane University. David has served as Executive Director of Andean Health and Development from 1994 to the present. He is Assistant Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of Wisconsin, Executive Director of Hospital Pedro Vicente Maldonado in Ecuador, Adjunct Professor at Tulane University Dept. of Tropical Medicine, and Adjunct Professor at the Universidad de San Francisco de Quito, 2000.
<< back