Karl Heusner Memorial, Belize's National Referral Hospital, celebrated its 24th anniversary this weekend.
It's an important milestone for KHMH because the institution can look back on how much they've grown from 1995 when they first opened their doors.
Also, under the CEO Michelle Hoare, they've had to weather some tough times, such last year, when they had to operate in emergency mode for months, while they tried to repair the roof over a third of the hospital, which was structurally compromised.
KHMH has since moved on from that challenge, and now, the management and staff are looking to make improvements to their facilities at a steady pace.
We stopped by their newly renovated Accident and Emergency Section, which was unveiled at a small ceremony today. Here's what the CEO had to say about reaching 24:
Michelle Cox-Hoare - CEO, KHMH
"We've started off with an official opening ceremony, where we just dedicated the institution. We blessed our staff; we blessed our patience. We have the opening now of our newly renovated waiting area, with the support from Belize Hospital Auxiliary, and KHMH Management and Board. We have other activities planned for this week, where we'll be having a night of activities for the staff, a barbecue cook-out, different activities."
"It has been a very long, but steady improvement over the years. As you heard, 24 years ago, we opened our doors. We've since doubled our size in terms of staffing capacity. We expanded services. We looked at work processes. We've been able to improve some of our work processes. So, it has been a very steady, but challenging 24 years because, you know, resources are always an issue. We have to thank the dedication of the staff, management, and the Board especially, because they are able to realize the operational plans that we have in place, and they really support us in seeing it through. We're here, looking at improving the services for emergency, the Waiting Area. We've seen that to be a very important area. We've been getting complaints that patients are not able to be seen by our nurses, and the just the layout and the flow of the area really contributed to some of those concerns. So, we decided as a theme to come together and make the necessary improvements for the safety of our patients, and the benefit of the institution on a whole."
"As you know, there are several structural changes that we've embarked on. You've heard of the upgrading of our Operating Theatre, our Labour and Delivery Unit, now the Accident and Emergency area. We've worked significantly on improving our policies, operational guides, work processes, and systems. We've looked at a systematic response to some of the deterioration in the hospital that we've observed over the years, and we're dealing with those on a year by year kind of basis. For the future, we plan to work on our physiotherapy unit because we've had some contributions from a Turkish donation some years ago that was just sitting there. And now, we plan, for the next year, to work on improving the space, and the patient comfort and efficiency in that area. So, that will be our next big venture for 2020."
The improvements to the Accident and Emergency Section is valued at $26,000.
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