By Susan Dix Lyons | Founder and Chair
We closed out the year 2012, having provided 13,942 consults at Clinica Verde. It was a great first year, during which we learned a lot. One of the high points for our Board of Directors is the exceptional leadership we have at the clinic. CV Director Dr. Alba Castillo and her dedicated team have exceeded our expectations for providing high-quality, compassionate care, while monitoring and capturing data that will help us evaluate our impact. Having just returned from Nicaragua after our Annual Meeting of the Board, we are flush with statistics and information, and so pleased to see the clinic operating so effectively. Just a few notes of interest:
• In 2012, 31 % of our patients were between the ages of 1 and 4 years old. Of those children, 23% were malnourished, which underscores the work we need to do in the area of nutrition education. We are planning interventions and education for 2013.
• We're seeing 46% of pregnant women in their first trimester, which is great news. Also, 48% of pregnant women are coming back to CV for the 5 visits recommended by the Ministry of Health. (Woo-hoo!)
• Of the pregnant women we served, 306 were identified as high-risk or potential risk. We are honored to be serving these patients through their pregnancies to ensure safe care and delivery.
• 57% of the women we cared for in 2012 were of fertile age, so we're succeeding in our efforts to focus on maternal-infant care.
• We began our work in cervical cancer prevention by promoting and providing Pap tests, performing 145 screening tests in 2012. We plan to step up efforts to address this issue in 2013, as cervical cancer has the highest incidence of all cancers among women in Nicaragua.
There's a lot of exciting work going on, and a lot more to do. If you ever have any questions or would like to see more of our patient data, please don't hesitate to contact us!
Yale School of Business Partners with CV
In other great news, we were fortunate to be selected by the Yale School of Business Global Social Enterprise Club to partner on developing Clinica Verde's long-term plan for sustainability. Through the program, we're matched with a group of 5 MBA students who study and research Clinica Verde, travel to Nicaragua to visit the clinic and make recommendations for our path moving forward. We've already gotten started and look forward to working with them through the spring!
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