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

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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! 

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NYTimes, cheap drugs, antibiotic resistance and Banda Health

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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!

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Part II: “It’s boring without Banda”

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"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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Stephen Muthama, center, and Banda Health - Kelly, Michael, Jeremy and Andrew

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.

Builders storefront small

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!

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Part I: “It’s boring without Banda”

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"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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Stephen Muthama, right, is a clinical officer who runs a clinic in Nairobi, Kenya

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.

Builders storefront
Stephen Muthama's clinic in Pipeline Embakasi

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.

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