February 12, 2011

What's Missing from Healthcare in Rwanda?

By Deane Waldman
A recent online article posted on NY Times Live tells a great medical success story in Rwanda. The author describes the opening of a "Harvard quality" hospital in Butaro, Rwanda where they had previously had no medical facilities at all. The 150-bed Butaro hospital was built in only two years at a cost of R40-million. (The cost of a comparable hospital in the U.S. would be 225-300 million USD). The physical structure itself is designed to scrub the air twelve times per hour to reduce risk of airborne infection. Here, that requires multi-million dollar machines. The Butaro hospital has advanced laboratory facilities, telemedicine capability, and a fully functional, user-friendly electronic records system. In a country where the annual per capita income was $510 in 2009, patients get as high quality medical care as we get here in the richest nation on earth. But wait - their care is better! Why? Because it cost a tiny fraction of what health care costs us here. What is missing...(Read Full Article)