St. Elizabeth's

So I write to you today from my desk at St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Arusha. My friend Erika was volunteering here until Monday, and when her time came to leave, everyone asked her who her replacement would be. I eagerly volunteered, as I have been finding little work to do with MOWAT (I actually think there is work to do, just nobody is letting me know what it is). So I am officially here in Arusha working at St. Elizabeth's two days a week (although I think it is likely I will stretch that longer).

Some history (thanks to Erika):
St. Elizabeth Hospital was started as a dispensary in 1975 and due to problems in taking care of mothers and children it was found that there was a need to upgrade this dispensary to a hospital in 1984. This is the second largest hospital in Arusha Municipal, the largest being Mount Meru Government Hospital. It is one amongst the Archdiocesan hospitals, others being Endolen Hospital in Ngorogoro and Waso Hospital in Loliondo District. It acts as a referral hospital to another 14 dispensaries and 3 health centers under the Archdiocese of Arusha. It has 120 staff, a capacity of 100 beds, and treats both inpatients and outpatients. It is the only hospital in Arusha with an ophthalmologist, taking care of eye surgeries and diseases.

So what will I be doing here? My official role is working with the IT team to help get doctors and hospital staff to use the computer network. There are two programs, the first being network system that all hospital staff should be using as an eventual replacement for the paper file system. The second is a very interesting program which allows doctors to post interesting cases to a online site that allows doctors from around the world to comment, or assist in diagnosis. Currently, doctors here are using this fairly infrequently if at all, but it can be a very helpful tool, especially as doctor training here in Tanzania tends to be much less in depth than medical training in countries such as the US.

When not teaching or helping with computer use, I get to help out around the hospital - fitting in whereever needed. During her time here, Erika watched surgeries, helped to give injections and dress wounds, package drugs in the pharmacy, and look at results in the labratory.