Thomas Letchford, Author at Banda Health

The “will to do so”

November 20, 2019June 21, 2019 by Thomas Letchford

The "will to do so"

“We believe there is enough wealth in the world to eradicate poverty, we just need to will to do so.” – the Scotts

As a young couple, Sylvia and Stephen Scott left their little home village near Matangwe in rural western Kenya to study and work in Canada. Twenty years later, they came back to a Matangwe they hardly recognized and partnered with local leaders to start the clinic that eventually became Matangwe Hospital.

Since then, Sylvia and Stephen Scott have bridged communities separated by oceans, language and culture to invest in the community that raised them.

Caring Partners Global, a nonprofit founded by the Scotts, runs Matangwe Hospital as part of its holistic approach to community development that also includes a scholarship program and agricultural and vocational training.

Photos courtesy of the Scotts.

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Matangwe Hospital: holistic approach to sustainability

Matangwe Hospital serves a largely rural community inland from Lake Victoria in western Kenya. To provide the best care possible to a community that has endured economic depression, a devastating HIV/AIDs epidemic, and environmental decline, Matangwe often ends up subsidizing the cost of medications and services. To deal with this financial pressure, Matangwe Hospital and its parent organization Caring Partners Global employ a holistic approach to sustainability that includes water infrastructure development, agricultural training, vocational training and a scholarship program.

This is a long-term approach to sustainability – helping the community flourish through higher crop yields, water security and access to good healthcare, and open new economic opportunities through education.

Banda Go fills a critical need by addressing resource management at the healthcare level – making long-term sustainability more achievable, but also helping to close that gap immediately by helping Matangwe get the absolute most out of their limited resources.

Connecting through a 4th cousin

We connected with Matangwe Hospital and CPG through Steve’s 4th cousin Bryan Gordon (I’m still a bit hazy on what a fourth cousin actually is – it’s not every day you bump into them! In any case here he is with Michael, Kelly and Andrew at our Nairobi office).

Bryan’s longtime friends Stephen and Sylvia Scott started Matangwe Hospital in 1998, and then Caring Partners Global in 2002 to facilitate sustainable development in the region. But it was back in 1994 that the Scotts found themselves in a position to be the catalyst for change in Matangwe.

20 years after leaving home, a very different Matangwe

Stephen and Sylvia got married in Kenya, and two weeks after their wedding moved worlds away to Canada to study and to work. At the time, Sylvia says, “I don’t think we ever talked about it – whether Canada would be our home for a long while.”

Twenty years – bachelor’s degrees, master’s degrees, jobs, promotions, moves, and four beautiful children – later, Sylvia found herself making the long journey back to her home village to take care of her mom, who was sick.

She hardly recognized the place. The HIV/AIDS epidemic had ripped through the community, which still did not have a local clinic to turn to. Decades of intense pressure on the land from farming and charcoal production had severely degraded the environment, and was taking a heavy toll on crop yields and water availability.

At the end of her stay, her brother-in-law approached her with a proposition: community members had raised the $50 needed to purchase land for the community’s first clinic. Would she and Stephen help them actually build it?

Banda Go helps Matangwe address long-term and immediate sustainability challenges

Stephen and Sylvia will tell you that they never pictured themselves coming back and opening a clinic. Now that clinic has become a small hospital. Since its beginning, providing healthcare to the Matangwe hospital has meant subsidizing the cost of treatment – Caring Partners Global oversees fundraising and finances.

Rather than back down in the face of serious obstacles in paying for healthcare long-term in Matangwe, Caring Partners Global set out a bold long-term strategy for sustainability that addresses the community’s inability to pay by investing in education, infrastructure and the local economy.

Banda Go plays an important role in this strategy by making sure that every available resource at Matangwe Hospital goes as far as it possibly can. With Banda Go, Matangwe is able to cut back on waste, improve financial decision making, and reduce purchasing costs. These improvements certainly go a long way over time, but right now they are critical to CPGs sustainability strategy because they make a difference right away.

We're inspired by our partners

We love getting to work alongside people like Stephen and Sylvia. We’re inspired by their ambitious dream to partner with the community that raised them for a bright future.

If you want to learn more about Matangwe and Caring Partners Global, check out their website www.caringpartners.ca – and you can donate to CPG here.

As always, thank you for doing this with us. Banda Go is our baby, and it’s taking a global village to raise it. Thanks for being a part of that village.

We’re at 12,000 patients per year, people!

February 6, 2021May 16, 2019 by Thomas Letchford

We're at 12,000 patients per year, people!

That’s 12,000 men, women and children slated to receive faster, more reliable healthcare at their local clinic this year.

Celebrate with us! Based on the combined patient volume at the eight clinics now using Banda Go (eight!), 12,000 patients will benefit from the work Banda Health is doing – the work that you make possible.

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Banda Go is now its first eight clinics

Boniface (left), of St. Jude Clinic Chokaa (recognize him?)

Stephen (right), of Builders Health Care Clinic (remember him?)

Jokaa (center) – one of the founders of St. Catherine of Sienna Medical Center

Sylvia and Stephen (founders) and the staff of Matangwe Hospital

Emmy and Andrew print Ewaso Ngiro Health Center’s first receipt with Banda Go

Mid Hill Medical Clinic

Chemi Chemi Ya Uzima Clinic (“Springs of Life” Clinic”)

The Banda Health team with Linda and Liz of JoyLnn Clinic. Front: Andrew. Middle: Liz, Linda. Back: Jeremy, Kelly, Michael.

TWELVE THOUSAND!!!

We’re pumped. Banda Go is our baby, and it’s taking a global village to raise it. Thanks for being a part of that village!

NYTimes, cheap drugs, antibiotic resistance and Banda Health

November 20, 2019April 30, 2019 by Thomas Letchford

Cheap drugs, antibiotic resistance and Banda Health

A few weeks ago, the New York Times published an article about the rise of drug-resistant bacteria in Kenya. Poor sanitation, cheap medication, unregulated prescription and unsafe antibiotic use have all contributed to the spread of bacterial infections that no longer respond to standard antibiotic treatment.

Before you dive in (and you really should – it’s a fascinating article about a problem with global consequences) here are a few notes about some of the people and places mentioned in the article, and what role Banda Health has to play in addressing this crisis.

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This is who Banda Health exists to serve

The “chemists” (drug vendors), the clinic and the hospital described in this article are exactly the kinds of organizations Banda Health exists to serve. And Kibera, the low-income residential area described in this article, is exactly the kind of community we exist to serve. In fact, we already have a clinic in Kibera that has signed up and will be coming online with Banda Go in the next few weeks.

Shoutout to Kijabe

Kijabe Hospital, described in the article as “one of Kenya’s best hospitals,” is where Steve has been involved training doctors since 2006. Dr. Mbugua and Dr. Otieno trained at Kijabe and now work there. Kijabe Hospital has been using Banda Health’s Inpatient Medicine database since November 2018.

Dr. Evelyn Mbugua and Dr. George Otieno

What is Banda Health's role in this crisis?

Banda Health can help stem the tide of drug-resistant bacteria in a number of ways, but one of the most important is by providing much-needed health data to the public health sector.

Banda Go helps clinics answer their #1 felt need: financial sustainability, helping them improve care for the patients that come through their doors. Banda Go also helps these clinics contribute to the improvement of health at community and global levels, providing anonymous, secure health metadata on prescription trends, disease prevalence, health outcomes, and health costs in the informal health sector described in the article. This kind of data is almost impossible to collect at scale in communities like Kibera – but it is absolutely fundamental to the research, health policy, education initiatives and funding decisions that will be necessary to address this crisis.

Global crisis, global response.

It will be small steps at first – a handful of clinics turning their businesses around, providing a higher standard of care to their local communities. But as we grow, an expanding network of clinics powered by Banda Go will churn out secure, anonymized health data with the potential to impact communities far beyond their own.

Banda Go is our baby, and it’s taking a global village to raise it. Thanks for being a part of that village!

Part II: “It’s boring without Banda”

November 20, 2019April 18, 2019 by Thomas Letchford

"It's boring without Banda" - Part II

In Part I, we met Stephen Muthama of Builders Health Clinic. We looked at some of the challenges he faces running a private clinic in Pipeline Embakasi, a neighborhood on the south side of Nairobi, Kenya.

Today, we’ll look at the ways Muthama has been using Banda Go to improve his business and deliver good healthcare to his patients – including two novel ways that caught us off guard.

Header photo by Laurakomanga.

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Banda Go: saving money, saving time. As promised.

As an entrepreneur, it is extremely satisfying when your hard work pays off. Banda Go is helping Muthama not only get the results his hard work deserves, but to see them in real time – which is what makes it fun. “It’s boring without Banda Go,” he told me.

Some of the changes Muthama reported since starting with Banda Go I expected to hear. Banda Go is doing what our team spent months designing it to do: improve clinics’ bottom line. With Banda Go, Muthama has been able to improve his clinic’s bottom line in three ways.

Drugs on hand, always

Builders has stopped running out of medicines or supplies. Muthama receives automatic notifications ahead of time alerting him in time to order more. Banda Go helps right-size his order so he can get better deals, but without ordering too much of any one item.

Secure inventory

Muthama says he cannot believe how easy it is to keep his inventory secure. He loves how he can use Banda Go to quickly check what is on the shelf against what should be on the shelf, and address discrepancies before a major problem arises.

Expiration: thing of the past

Banda Go saves money by helping sell drugs before they expire. That way Muthama and his team do not throw medicine away – or accidentally sell expired medicine. This saves Builder’s money and protects the clinic’s reputation (and protects against potential lawsuits).

Banda Go: new tricks

It’s nice to hear that Banda Go is working as advertised. But Muthama has already found at least two novel ways to use Banda Go to contribute to his bottom line, and to provide better care to his patients.

Better deals. Although Banda Health hopes to facilitate ordering between clinics and suppliers down the road, we haven’t done so yet. But with Banda Go automating so much of the busy work, Muthama has started using some of his new free time to look through his purchasing records in Banda Go to identify suppliers that have given him the best deals in the past.

Better patient care. Banda Health hopes to add electronic medical records to Banda Go in the near future. But Muthama has already found ways to use Banda Go as a basic patient health record. He says that patients usually don’t remember many of the details from their last visit – exactly what diagnosis they had received, or which medicines they went home with. In the past, that information was often lost in a sea of paper records. But Banda Go keeps track of patient purchases and diagnoses, so Muthama can pull up those details with a few clicks. It’s a small thing, but it greatly improves patient care.

We're excited. Are you?

We are excited to see Muthama get so much out of Banda Go’s basic features, even make it work in new ways. In the near future, we hope to be able to offer the rest of features that he is looking for (like supply chain integration and patient health records) – to Builders and to clinics all over Kenya.

Banda Go is our baby, and it’s taking a global village to raise it. Thanks for being a part of that village!

Part I: “It’s boring without Banda”

November 20, 2019April 16, 2019 by Thomas Letchford

"It's boring without Banda" - Part I

Stephen Muthama started using Banda Go in his clinic just over two months ago. I caught up with him the other day to get a feel for how things were going with Banda Go at his clinic.

Today, we’ll take a quick look at the challenges Muthama faces running a private clinic in a middle-income neighborhood. On Thursday, in Part II, we’ll see how Muthama is using Banda Go to build a sustainable business and deliver quality healthcare to his patients despite these challenges.

Header photo by Laurakomanga.

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Pipeline Embakasi: "middle-income residential area"

Home to Builders Health Care Clinic and its owner Stephen Muthama, Pipeline is situated on the south side of Nairobi near Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. According to Muthama, Pipeline Embakasi is a densely populated “middle-income residential area.”

Most of the high-rise residential buildings have electricity, he says, but few have indoor plumbing. Residents retrieve water from a borehole serving 10-15 buildings. Most choose to drink bottled water if they can afford it. The roads are OK, as long as it’s not raining – drainage and sewer systems can be easily overwhelmed. High demand for housing leads to extremely crowded construction – buildings go up right next to each other and streets are squeezed between them. Coupled with busy car, bike and foot traffic, Muthama says that local fire departments have a difficult time making their way to the scene of a fire even if it is close by.

Middle-income doesn’t mean you have access to healthcare

Residents of Pipeline Embakasi have extremely limited public healthcare options. Getting to a hospital takes most people about an hour. Muthama says that in theory, government hospitals or clinics tend to be the cheapest options. But by the time patients get there, wait in long lines often for hours, and make extra trips to a third party lab or pharmacy, it’s not clear how much money patients end up saving. Most prefer to try something closer to home first.

When Muthama first opened Builders, there were essentially a number of “Chemists” in the area – small shops selling antibiotics and painkillers without prescriptions. But there were no clinics offering medical consultation or lab testing. Muthama saw a need for better healthcare providers and an opportunity to be that provider. In April 2016, he left his position as manager of a clinic franchise and started his own private clinic.

Middle-income doesn’t mean you can afford healthcare

Running a sustainable private clinic is not an easy task, even in a middle-income neighborhood like Pipeline. Every day, patients come through the doors of Builders Health Care Clinic without any money. Some arrive with a plan to sweet talk their way into free care. While keeping the business afloat means saying no to non-paying customers, sometimes Muthama’s heart gets the better of his good sense. But for those who arrive in urgent condition – a feverish child in the middle of a seizure, or a bleeding victim of assault and robbery on the street – Muthama cannot help but administer first aid and take on the cost himself.

In a community where patients so often have difficulty paying, Muthama has to work hard to keep his expenses down. It’s either that or face losing the clinic – and his livelihood. Happily, keeping expenses down just got a lot easier.

[Cue Banda Go theme music.]

Continued in Part II.

Banda Health at Builders in early 2019. Left to right: Kelly, Michael, (Stephen Muthama), Jeremy and Andrew. These are the guys making it happen. Get in on the action by donating today.

How is the view from where you are standing?

November 20, 2019February 28, 2019 by Thomas Letchford

The view from here is pretty exhilarating

We are pretty excited about this map. It shows the next 20 clinics in sub-Saharan Africa that are about to transform the way they do healthcare. And how, you might ask, would they do that? With Banda Go – our business management solution.

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Banda Go powered clinics in the pipeline

How is the view from where you are now? For me here in Houston, it’s flat and industrial. For Andrew and the rest of our team at our office in Nairobi, it’s similarly urban and crowded, but with brighter colors and more lively streets. Steve has the best view from his porch overlooking the Rift Valley, and we try not to hold it against him.

The view that we are most excited about today is one we can all enjoy, from anywhere. Pause for a moment to look at this map with us. Stare and dream and hope for the future of healthcare in sub-Saharan Africa. The map shows what our pipeline looks like right now for Banda Go – the first twenty of our goal to reach thousands of clinics across the continent.

So far, four clinics in the Nairobi area have made the switch to our business management solution, Banda Go. With Banda Go automating inventory, cashier, accounting and reports, these clinics have stopped running out of medicine, cut out hours of paperwork, and no longer have to guess at the financial health of their business.
By keeping their businesses healthy, clinics using Banda Go do a better job at keeping their patients healthy.

This year, we are excited to see clinics transform into sustainable businesses known for reliable, quality healthcare. All it takes to use Banda Go is an internet connection and a laptop, so now it’s time to get hundreds of clinics on the path to better healthcare.

Over the next few months we will be bringing you their stories.

Thanks for being a part of this with us!

All the best,
Thomas Letchford

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