Health Bridges International, Inc.

The COVID pandemic has changed the world in immeasurable ways. In the country of Perú, people are dying in the streets. Hospitals are full. Make-shift clinics have been set-up in tents in parking lots of hospitals and large clinics to handle the massive influx of need. Yet, the reality is devastating - the current resources are not nearly enough.
 
The second wave of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has hit Perú with a force no one could have expected. Physicians and healthcare professionals are working with extreme intensity to ensure patients have access to the care they need. There are, however, challenges preventing medical providers from linking patients into the best care. Capacity in hospitals and the number of critical care beds are at a breaking point. Healthcare professionals are drained and unable to keep up with the demand. There is a need for a mechanism to preserve critical care resources.
 
Now more than ever, the axiom “prevention is the best treatment” should guide the organizing of health services. This project aims to utilize high flow capacity oxygen concentrators – units capable of oxygen flow rates between 10 and 20 liters/per minute – not as a critical care intervention, but as alternative intermediate support for less ill patients, thus conserving critical care resources. Preserving oxygen capacity and maintaining normal oxygen levels for moderately ill patients is the key to preserving ICU capacity and helping healthcare professionals utilize hospital beds most effectively.

This project aims to provide a safety net of support in the following manner:
(1) Utilizing 20 high flow rate oxygen concentrators in outpatient care facilities
(2) Organizing a team of early career physicians to act as care ambassadors to organize and deploy concentrator units in coordination with an established clinic for patients with moderate COVID related respiratory disease
(3) Collaborating with hospitals and intensive care units serving areas with populations living in extreme poverty to safely delay or prevent admissions and to triage patients appropriately to advanced care when needed

The Perú Oxygen Concentrator Response Project, under the direction of Health Bridges International , will be staffed fully with licensed Peruvian healthcare professionals. The project will build bridges of collaboraiton between hospitals, clinics and NGOs. The project will initially be facilitated as pilot. The pilot will seek to fully understand the technical and operational specifics of scaling the model with a larger patient population. 

Help us build bridges. Help us save lives.