Within hours after the earthquake, patients with crushed and broken limbs and other severe injuries began arriving at PIH/ZL supported Ministry of Health (MOH) hospitals and clinics in Haiti’s Central and Artibonite regions. With the help of dozens of partners, PIH/ZL responded immediately by opening up new emergency wards and bringing in volunteer surgical teams and the supplies needed to run operating rooms around the clock at four of our largest facilities: Cange, Hinche, St. Marc, and Petite Riviere. In Cange, home to the oldest PIH/ZL hospital, a warehouse and church were converted into pre- and post-operative wards. In the first four weeks after the earthquake, These facilities delivered life-saving medical care to 2,961 patients with earthquake-related injuries and conditions.
Even while we were rapidly ramping up our surgical capacity, PIH/ZL anticipated the looming need for post-operative care, physical therapy, rehabilitative medicine, and mental health and psychosocial services. Rotating volunteer physical therapists and rehabilitative medicine specialists were recruited to provide expert treatment and to train our local clinical teams. A physical therapist with extensive trauma experience was hired to build, train, and lead an expanded rehabilitation team. By the end of June, our program had significantly expanded the number of physical therapists and specialized community health workers employed across all of our sites in an effort to provide accompaniment for amputees and other patients with disabilities. (See the Rehabilitation and Physical Therapy section for more information.)
PIH/ZL’s focus on strengthening post-operative care, community-based rehabilitation, and physical therapy services helped make our Cange facility a referral center for patients discharged from other hospitals. Referrals included amputees preparing for prostheses, as well as those who had just been fitted with them. Similarly, PIH/ZL expanded the mental health and psychosocial support staff and services in Cange and at each of the MOH clinical sites we support, hiring a psychologist for every hospital, and doubling the number of social workers and social work assistants working across ZL’s sites. (See the Mental Health and Psychosocial Support section for more information)
At our hospitals and health care centers in the Central Plateau and Lower Artibonite, we are building and renovating facilities, hiring and training staff, and strengthening clinical and community-based operations to meet the needs of the tens of thousands of people who have migrated to these communities from Port-au-Prince. Construction projects are already underway at five of our health care facilities; some had been damaged by the quake, and all needed expanded ward capacity.
On July 3, PIH/ZL broke ground on a 320-bed teaching hospital in the city of Mirebalais, a site located at the crossroads of the lower Central Plateau, just 35 miles north of Port-au-Prince. (See the Mirebalais Hospital section for more information.)
