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First AIHA Partnership Primary Healthcare Clinic Opens
Originally published in AIHA's Connections, July 2000.
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| Ruslan Bodelan, (far left) mayor of Odessa, addresses guests and clinic staff during the opening ceremony as (left to right) Dr. Mikhalchuk, Volodymyr Kolodenko, Valery Zaporozhan, Jim Smith, and Barbara Fisher look on. |
On May 31, the Odessa/Boulder partners celebrated the opening of the first Primary Healthcare Center established under AIHA's current cooperative agreement with USAID. The event at the Center, which is located at the Family Health Institute at Odessa State Medical University, also the site of the new Center, brought together Ukrainian and US officials, USAID representatives, and local press. The new center represents the first of its kind in Ukraine and is a model for similar centers that will be established in other areas. All of these centers will operate using clinical practice guidelines developed for primary healthcare by AIHA partners. The new community-based facility in Odessa will focus on occupational health issues that specifically serve local populations.
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| Chris Crowley (left) and Mayor Bodelan (center) cut the ribbon officially opening the new PHC center. |
Bernice Bennett, AIHA senior program officer stated that, "The success of this project is greatly due to the commitment, leadership, and vision of both the US and NIS partners and hospital staff."
"One of the key features of all of these centers is that they will provide services that will meet international standards," added Donald Harbick, AIHA associate executive director for partnership programs.
Vasily Mikhalchuk, minister of health of Ukraine; Ruslan Bodelan, mayor of Odessa; Valery Zaporozhan, rector, and Volodymyr Kolodenko, vice rector, of Odessa State Medical University; Jim Smith, AIHA executive director; and USAID representatives, Eliot Pearlman, senior health advisor, and Chris Crowley, mission director, joined Valentyna Bespoyasnaya, director of the Family Health Institute; Barbara Fisher, vice president of Boulder Community Hospital in Boulder, Colorada, and the US program coordinator of the Boulder/Odessa partnership; Alyona Gerasimova, AIHA regional director of West NIS; as well as 22 local media representatives to celebrate the opening of the new Center.
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| Dr. Valentina Bespoyasnaya (far left), Center director is interviewed by a member of the local press as (l-r) Jim Smith; Jaraslov Dutkeyvich, director of the US Peace Corps in Ukraine; Alyona Gerasimova; Chris Crowley; and Dr. Mikhalchuk look on. |
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| Staff checks the equipment in one of the examination rooms of the Center. |
Participants toured the new facility's reception/waiting area, examination rooms, and physician offices that feature state-of-the-art medical equipment and new furnishings, and adequate supplies purchased through the partnership. One unique feature of the Center is that the set up of the examination rooms allows for doctors to see more than one patient at a time, thus improving efficiency while providing privacy to individual patients.
The result of a partnership between the Odessa State Medical University, the Odessa Sea Port Polyclinic, Boulder Community Hospital, and the University of Colorado School of Medicine, the center will provide primary care services for the needs of families throughout the Odessa region and allow doctors to practice in a model family medicine clinic.
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