Haiti : High -Tech Hospital Goes Belly-Up In Haiti

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (July 20) - Two months ago, Dr. Reynold Savain was the director of the state -of-art  hospital in this country. Now, he walks the empty corridors of the 43,000-square-foot Centre Hospitalier du Sacre-Coeur with a stunned expression.
Millions of dollors of equipment gather dust. In the drive way, tarps cover two brand -new ambulances. A colorful school of koi, still young, swim  unnoticed in the rapidly dying pond in the front lobby.
 "Any private hospital, in any country, anywhere in the world, that sees 12,600 patients in three months  - for free - is going to go bankrupt," Savain said.
The  private hospital, known as CDTI, is located in the heart of Port-au-Prince, just a few blocks from Haiti's collapsed National Palace. Physically, the medical building withstood the earthquake, but finanically, the weight was too much  to bear.

For three months, the hallway was ground zero for thousands of victims of the January 12 Haiti earthquake. On January 12, Savain  opened the doors of the hospital to Haiti's wounded and  numerous international organizations and volunteer doctors. But even after treating thousands of patients , no one stepped up to pay his staff of 1,777. Medical machinery was worked to its limits then went unrepaired. Dr Savain was forced to close the hospital in March.

Facing mounting debt, Sevain had no choice but to close the doors to CDTI on March 31. Savain 's facility saved lives because it had the equipment , staff and resources of a private hosiptal. And now, it has collapsed for the same reason. "If nothing happens by July 31, I'm just going to sell all the equipment and rent the place out as offices," Savain says. Savain would like to see the hospital either bought by the government of Haiti or  offer a mix of paid and subsidized health care, with the facility run by an American university.

The government of Haiti has stalled these plans, wary of collaborations with the private sector or the aid community, which has proved to be a fickle investor.
"If I just give the money like this, people will say I put it in [savain's] pocket," Haiti's minister of health, Dr. Alex Larsen, said abouy CDTI at a recent press conference."I can't take the money of the government and give it away.
International organizations  and private investers have followed Larsen's statements on CDTI. Privately, one investor conceded that the hosiptal would never be able to receive international backing  unless and until the government of Haiti committed to long-term public funding for the facility.

Aid money poured into Haiti after the earthquake , much of it earmarked for health care, but it remains invested in traditional funding patterns : malaria, tuberculosis,  HIV/AIDS, pregnant women, vaccinations, etc. Additional public health infrastructure is a tenet  of Haiti's reconstruction plan, but so far, no progress has been made.
The vision of CDTI was to provide specialized care to  those who could afford  it, and ultimately, to create a space to educate medical students, who,  in their residencies,  are generally unable to learn anything about speciaties such as cardiology or oncology because public hospitals are ill equipped.

His story has circulated as a cautionary  tale for people thinking of investing here.For his part, Savain knows the future of the hospital is not up to him. If it fails , it will at least have the legacy of January 12.
"I know some of the investors wish I hadn't opened the doors at all after the earthquake," Savain said. "They think it's  my fault. But, If I had it all to do over again, I'd do the same thing."
There are  people out there who were injured during the earthquake and still have untreated wounds.  How can a hospital close when it is so desperately needed?? The government has the money to subsidize the facility. Open your purse.