Liberians home and abroad, including foreign nationals residing in Liberia, have all longed for a resilient health sector within Liberia. The people's aspiration has also placed a premium on the country's largest referral hospital, the John F. Kennedy Medical Center to serve as a hub of a more efficient, effective, accessible and affordable medical center for all.
Dedicated to serve as Liberia's premiere medical facility in building a strong, viable health sector, the hospital's current administration, headed by its Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Linda Birch, has committed itself to leading a transformative agenda that would restore the hospital to its pre-war status.
"We are working to ensure that JFK becomes what it was known to be before the war," Dr. Birch noted in a statement. "We have to make the nation's premier referral hospital the nerve center of the nation's health sector. This is what we [she and her team] have committed ourselves to. We, in collaboration with other sector actors, will make sure to make the President's agenda for the sector achievable."
In April of this year, President Joseph Boakai appointed a new management team at JFK, with Dr. Birch as the CEO General Administrator. The Birch's management team, over a short period of time, has made steady progress in upgrading critical areas of the facility, to include: Strengthening key partnerships to enhance service delivery, Infrastructural development, and sanitized medical environment, among many others.
Under strengthening key partnerships, Pharmaceutical Supplies and Financial Management are at the peak of this accomplishment - JFK is now partnering with the BK Pharmacy to address the long-standing issue of drug shortages, ensuring patients have reliable access to essential drugs; while at the same time
Closing a partnership with the International Bank Liberia Limited and ECOBANK. The partnership with these banks has now greatly enhanced the hospital's financial transparency and controls, thus promoting trust and accountability even among patients and partners.
In regards to Infrastructure development, the management team has ensured the completion of a comprehensive rehabilitation of the Maternity Emergency Breakroom, the Male Doctors Call room, the construction of the external pharmacy at the Pediatrics Wards which is at 90% completion, and significant improvements in the maternity wards, including the Normal Vaginal Delivery (NVD) Ward, the Martha Johnson Semi-Private Rooms, and the Post C-Section Wards.
At the same time, the Birch's administration has placed sanitation of the hospital as one of its topnotch priorities, ensuring an all-time clean and welcoming health facility. It has curtailed what was a culture of patients receiving treatment in the open, though still engulfed with shortage of medical beds to meet the increased intake of patients daily. Another monumental achievement by Dr. Birch is the launching of a state of the art Oxygen Plant - This facility will guarantee constant supply of medical-grade oxygen, essential for our Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and Surgical Theaters.
Looking to the Future
Birch and her team have also embarked on several transformational initiatives aimed at further elevating the quality of care at the JFK Medical Center. She is concentrating and rallying the efforts of her team to fully equip the wards and operating theaters, ensuring the availability of electricity, and the Hospital Management Information System (HMIS). These set goals would boost the preparedness, efficiency and effectiveness in healthcare services at the medical center.
For instance, upgrading the ward and operating theater will enable the hospital delivers world-class health services to both local and international patients, strengthening the hospital's reputation as a premiere healthcare institution, while a review of measures to tackle electricity availability would ensure that electricity is stable, prevent power disruptions to patient care, including backup systems and exploring alternative energy solutions amid the Dry Season.
The HMIS, on the other hand, is a technological transformation system that will streamline the management of patient records, billing and scheduling, increasing operational efficiency and improving patient care. There is currently an ongoing pilot phase of the HMIS at the Liberian-Japanese Friendship Maternity Hospital.
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The administration recounts that the progress made thus far signifies a solidified partnership and unwavering support from the Government of Liberian and its national and International partners, while also being optimistic of more financial, material and technical support to achieving its medium and long-term goals.
Dr. Birch has indeed carved out and set herself to a huge task which her critics believe may be very difficult if not impossible to achieve given the current difficult outlook of the nation's finances.
But she remains undaunted and firmly fixed in the belief with trust in God and the will to carry on despite difficult challenges, she will surely find a way to resuscitate JFK and restore it to its former glory.
