GE Citizenship

Developing Health Globally™

GE has a direct impact on more than 4.8 million lives worldwide through its Developing Health Globally™ program, which upgrades the capabilities of rural district hospitals. The goal of the program is to improve healthcare delivery for some of the world's most vulnerable people, with added emphasis on Millennium Development Goals 4 and 5: maternal and infant care. In addition, the facility improvements made through the program improve treatment of trauma and acute illnesses such as combinations of HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria.

Formerly called Africa Project, the Developing Health Globally program began in 2004 with a $20-million product donation investment in rural African communities and has since expanded to a five-year, $30-million commitment. In 2007, the program expanded into Latin America with two hospital sites in Honduras. In 2008, GE announced the Honduras program’s growth from two to six hospitals.

The initiative is designed to improve healthcare delivery in rural African and Latin American communities and ultimately other regions of the world. The program draws on GE products, expertise and employee engagement to provide a sustainable, enterprise solution approach to gaps that exist in rural healthcare facilities today. The enterprise solution approach GE follows is unique for a philanthropic/product-donation effort in that it is carried out using GE business practices similar to how GE implements a greenfield opportunity and combines GE people, process and technology to yield sustainable, best-case results.

Outcomes To Date

In terms of results, the most complete data available is from Ghana, the country where GE began installing equipment in 2006. With 11 hospital projects in Ghana alone, GE is improving the quality of care for over 2.7 million people. It is noteworthy that the hospitals in the Developing Health Globally program are rural facilities serving communities with around 200,000 people who may live up to a few days’ walk from a hospital. Each facility has minimal staff (typically one trained doctor), 50 to 150 beds and very little equipment. The Ghanaian hospitals were given similar upgrades — X-ray, ultrasound, anesthesia, patient monitor, infant warmer, water filters and back-up power. Considering that some communities had never seen an ultrasound prior to GE’s donation, all practiced surgery, some without anesthesia machines and all operated without patient monitors, each piece of equipment represented a significant improvement in technology and care-giving capacity for the hospitals.

Below is a snapshot of year-over-year improvements measured at different hospitals in Ghana, and explanation of the trends observed.

Patient volumes:

• Outpatient Attendance (OPA) is up 20 to 200 percent. Word spreads quickly that care is available and people go to the hospital to be helped versus as a last resort before dying.
• Admissions are up 10 to 50 percent. More people in the outpatient area translates to more in-patient cases.

Pregnancy and infant care:

• Deliveries increase up to 50 percent. In Ghana, only 47 percent of all births are attended by a skilled practitioner and only a fraction of those occur in an equipped facility. As awareness grows, more women deliver in an attended facility if they are able to reach it in time.
• Referrals see a downward trend. Hospitals are equipped to perform c-sections, so do not need to spend scarce resources referring cases to more advanced facilities.
• Ultrasound scans increase up to 200 percent. A significant increase in antenatal scans are observed, representing improved maternal health awareness and practice in the community.
• Use of baby warmers increases 175 percent. Driven by increases in deliveries as well as improved use of technology by practitioners.

Surgery:

• Anesthesia and monitoring increase 100 to 250 percent. Surgery volume increases when aided by modern tools.

Diagnostics:

• X-ray use increases up to 250 percent. Road accidents are common and a significant cause of injuries that require X-ray. This new diagnostic capability is a probable root cause of overall patient volume increase. Previously, patients would go untreated or attempt the journey to a national hospital for treatment of serious cases.

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