Assessing the Impact of Health Service in the Context of Community Growth, A Case Study of Mercy Medical Center, Mende.
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Date
2024-04-05
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Uganda Christian University
Abstract
Mercy Child Care Ministry had offered child protection and family empowerment services to the under privileged in Mende sub-county Wakiso District for many years. However, the health care mandate was never in place and people had to travel long distances to find appropriate health services through which many lost their lives as they could not access these and on time. Mende subcounty had a population of 26,327 people at the time in 2014, and now 38,400 as of 2020 UBOS report. Considering the increased demand for health care services, Mercy Medical Center (MMC) was started.
MMC is a level III health center started in 2016. In its first years, it performed so well and became self-sustaining in just months, it saw 6010 patients in 8 months. However, with the continuing community growth, the facility is not growing as expected and the patient numbers have not changed much. In 2022, a total number of 5754 patients were seen all year round. This is less compared to 6010 patients seen in May to December 2016.
With the initial growth, the medical center was able to break-even and meet its operational expenses by its fourth month of operation. This allowed it to start new departments like immunization, Radiography (Ultrasound and X-ray), a fully-fledged maternity unit with the only neonatal unit in the sub-county and operating room. Even though these departments have been added, for the last 7 years, the average number of patients seen has not changed much from the usual 306-625 patients per month.
We therefore conducted the study to explore the reasons for stagnation in patient growth of the health center.