Database of Health Workforce Innovations

627

Title

The Response of Academic Medical Centers to the 2010 Haiti Earthquake: The Mount Sinai School of Medicine Experience

Brief Description of Challenge

Providing much-needed medical care to impacted Haitians, lack of infrastructure, lack of medical equipment/medications

Brief Description of Innovation

Who- Mount Sinai response to the earthquake in 2010, partnered with MediShare
What- The day after disaster struck, Medishare opened up a tent hospital, which they have been operating in some form ever since the earthquake. The tent hospital relied entirely on volunteer staff who committed to participate in week-long service missions. These volunteers rotated on overlapping weekly schedules to ensure continuity. The Medishare hospital provided a hospital-based relief effort that was familiar to most of the Mount Sinai volunteers who had considerable experience with hospital-based care.
When- immediately after the initial disaster
How- volunteer medical students, doctors, and other volunteers to work at the hospital

Innovation – Increase Numbers

Solidarity staffing (eg deployments to/from other jurisdictions)

Innovation – Increase Flexibility

Innovation – Increase Availability

Worker

Community Health Workers
Students
Volunteers

Task/Skill

Training / Retraining

Brief Description of Setting

Haiti after the 2010 earthquake

Setting - Organization

Critical Care
Emergency Medical Services

Setting - Geography

Remote

Facilitators

Medical knowledge and supplies from Mount Sinai, knowledge of the area/culture, continuous streams of volunteers

Barriers

Lack of resources (medications, medical equipment, space), language/cultural barriers, social issues (political unrest, security)

Impact / Evaluation

Ripp, J. A., Koncicki, H., Bork, J., & Asgary, R. (2012). The Response of Academic Medical Centers to the 2010 Haiti Earthquake: The Mount Sinai School of Medicine Experience. The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, 86(1), 32–35.

Link

https://doi.org/10.4269/ajtmh.2012.11-0434

Contact

Jonathan A. Ripp

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Organization

Mount Sinai School of Medicine

Phone Number

Country

USA

Expert Assessment – Impact

Assessed Risk - Workers

Assessed Risk - System

Assessed Risk – Patients

Expert Assessment – Confidence

Language

English

Type

Published Literature

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