Bulamu International

We treat the sick and strengthen health systems serving Africans most in need.

Improve healthcare for the poor by bringing upgraded clinical processes, cost-effective technology s

Goal One: Improve the standard of care in general medicine at public facilities by providing resources and training for improved productivity, so that more patients can be treated with existing resources

Goal Two: Offer free “Surgery Intensives” that concentrate local resources at existing public facilities for weeklong events that attract patients from long distances and clear the backlog of untreated cases

Goal Three: Install the Health Center Excellence management system in public health facilities and issuing weekly/monthly reports to improve patient care, staff attendance and clinician productivity.

Local Staff Education: Through our CST program, we assign 3-5 licensed Ugandan clinicians to work for 8 weeks with local staff at the district’s four largest health centers, modeling a higher-productivity and more professional culture. Health Facility Management Training: When introducing our HCE management system, we use a “train the trainer” approach to teach the health leaders how to operate it. Each facility is provided with a program manual and the related materials which provide instructions on how to use the devices and reports being provided. Staff members are trained in management disciplines using the new data. MBA Mini-Course: This year we inaugurated a 3-day Leadership Skills Seminar for the District Health Officers and Biostatisticians at our 11 partner districts, utilizing curriculum materials our Executive Board Chair Richard Chandler has used in his 18 years as an MBA professor at the University of California, Irvine.

Between April 2016 and February 2020, Bulamu operated 17 weeklong medical camps that treated 154,690 patients free-of-charge—and then the world changed. Uganda imposed a total lockdown between March and June of 2020, with all inter-city travel suspended. Medical camps were banned as potential super-spreader events, but there were no restrictions on our sending Bulamu clinicians to existing MOH facilities, which were continuing to treat ill patients. In June 2020, once travel was permitted again, we launched a new initiative focused on strengthening the existing public health system by combining three linked programs: Clinical Support Teams (CST), Surgery Intensives (SI), and the Bulamu HCE Program. This new strategy, which has been enthusiastically received by government officials, is now improving the health system faster, with greater long-term results, than our pre-pandemic medical camp model. With the CST, we are providing free general medicine treatment to 50-60,000 patients a year for a cost of under $5 per patient. This lays the groundwork for our SI program and HCE programs, which perform surgeries and impact patient care at the 315 health units in our system. In 2021, we introduced into our programs a vertical focus on one clinical area where the need for innovative, cost-effective solutions was particularly apparent: Maternal & Child Health (MCH). Building on our established district partnerships, we raised the MCH Standard of Care with the presence of our Core Team of clinicians on-site, who brought needed skills and supplies. The HCE program added Emergency Transport, Essential Surgical Supplies, MCH patient forms and surgical equipment to its competencies. In 2021, our MCH programs helped 6,061 patients give birth safely, including 505 C-sections. We expect to add clinical training on vital MCH skills (e.g., Helping Babies Breathe for newborn resuscitation) in 2022.