Even though hospitals, clinics and other health-care hubs are typically viewed as constants within a community, they are hardly immune to the issues that can sap a region’s vitality. Those in developing countries are particularly susceptible.

Historically, the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s international hospitals and sanitariums topped charts when it came to medical expertise and patient care. But a decade ago, weakening economies, dwindling overseas budgets and shifting national and church dynamics had resulted in many short-staffed, meagerly supplied facilities offering health care scantier than a hospital gown.

It was then that a group of Adventist corporations partnered to organize Adventist Health International (AHI). Loma Linda University (LLU), the Adventist world church headquarters, the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) International, Adventist Health Systems West, Adventist Health System Sunbelt Healthcare Corporation, Adventist Health Care, Inc., and Kettering Adventist Healthcare Network merged their efforts to revive deteriorating hospitals. 

After getting approval from the Adventist world church headquarters, Gimbie Adventist Hospital in Ethiopia and Davis Memorial Clinic and Hospital in Guyana were the first facilities to benefit from AHI. “Theses facilities were in desperate straits and in danger of being closed,” says Dr. Richard Hart, AHI president and LLU chancellor. “We faced many challenges including establishing a governance and management system that makes the board and staff function together effectively.”

Prior to AHI’s intervention, the situation in Ethiopia was particularly bleak. The local government had sent church headquarters there a letter telling them they had one year to rally or face forced closure.

“The hospital was already four months into the 12-month period,” Hart says. With the assistance of ADRA Netherlands and Students for International Mission Service, an LLU-based student mission program, construction on a new hospital building began in 1998. After five years and nearly U.S. $400,000 in donations, a new three-story hospital building was completed in 2003. The new facility includes a surgery suite, labor and delivery room, patient wards and an educational floor.

Meanwhile, at Davis Memorial Clinic and Hospital in Georgetown, Guyana, “little had been done to the facility in the last 50 years,” says Hart. When it was built in 1952, the hospital was Guyana’s premier medical care center. But it had become so ramshackle that local church officials voted to shut it down. Then AHI stepped in.

“AHI has made real progress in Guyana,” says Dr. Donn Gaede, AHI secretary and an assistant professor at LLU’s School of Public Health.

“Davis Memorial is now one of our bright spots.” Dr. Elie Honoré, director of the Inter-American region of the church’s Health Ministries Department, adds, referring to the hospital as “a complete turnaround.” He says AHI’s emphasis on strengthening the hospital board and management team made a huge impact.

So did nitty-gritty improvements such as replacing Davis Memorial’s electrical system. The hospital staff can now operate essential equipment without the constant threat of power outages interfering with patient care.

In early 2001, AHI furthered upgrades at Davis Memorial by implementing the Foundation Health-Care Worker training program, which provides an introduction to health care through instruction and exposure to each hospital department. Guyana’s Ministry of Health soon recognized the program’s value and made it a prerequisite to various health careers.

“One of the exciting things about the new life at Davis Memorial is the revitalization of the [adjacent] church,” Hart says. “When I visited Davis Memorial in previous years, the church members discouraged me from attending the church located at the hospital and would invite me to the larger churches located in Georgetown.” Membership at the hospital church, which had dropped to approximately 50 regular attendees, has since skyrocketed to 1,000. Hart reports a new church was built to accommodate the influx.

The 32 hospitals and 52 clinics AHI has impacted now span 13 countries: Cameroon, Ethiopia, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras, India, Malawi, Nigeria, Rwanda, Chad, Trinidad, Venezuela and Zambia.

“[Many] institutions from our [region] are now anxious to be part of AHI,” Honoré says. “I wish things could move faster, but I understand the financial and personnel constraints on AHI.”

Hart explains that AHI does get plenty of membership requests, but that the organization wants to make sure that “a solid foundation with quality personnel and policies be developed in each area so improvements will be maintained. The core business of AHI is health, and we must maintain quality [and the] appropriate technology level. Each country must also move toward a certain level of financial self-sufficiency.”

For more information about Adventist Health International, visit www.adventisthealthinternational.org.