A resident of Richmond, Virginia, she was visiting a friend in Kingston when the friend's mother became ill and was taken to hospital. At the hospital, she had to wait for hours before being admitted and receiving attention. Billie Rees identified a need for improved equipment and techno-logy in the health services and took on the task of doing something about it.
A cancer survivor, Billie Rees had knowledge of the health ser-vices in the United Sates, and knew that sometimes, equipment was discarded and replaced with updated ones though they were still serviceable. She thought that, perhaps, such equipment would be of use in local hospitals.
Generosity
Needing a partner in the medical world, she contacted the Dean of the Richmond-based Medical College of Virginia, who put her in touch with Dr Charles Bagwell, head of the Department of Paediatric Surgery. Thus was born Children's Medical Services International (CMSI). These two shared a desire to make life better for people who were suffering, and Jamaica has been the recipient of their generosity.
After a series of exploratory meetings with representatives of University of the West Indies and the Ministry of Health, in the late 1990s, they decided to work out of Montego Bay. Their base was to be the Cornwall Regional Hospital. Since then, they have made many visits to Jamaica and sent several shipments of medical supplies and equipment, such as computers, gurneys and ventilators and the first mammogram machine in western Jamaica.
On March 1, 2001, CSMI was able to organise and conduct the first Internet-based telemedicine conference between Cornwall Regional Hospital in Montego Bay and the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond.
Support personnel
CMSI through its medical network in Richmond Virginia and other parts of the United States, identifies health professionals who are willing to donate their time and travel to Jamaica at their own expense. They have been bringing groups of medical and technical support personnel to Jamaica on a regular basis over the last 10 years.
On their most recent visit to Jamaica from November 9-15, 2008, in addition to Dr Bagwell, paediatric surgeon and O'Connell McKeon, community mental health specialist, the CMSI group included medical personnel in the area of neonatology, the specialty of care of premature and ill newborn babies. They were Dr. Bonnie Makdad, Neonatologist, and Beverly McInnis, Neona-t-ology nurse.
These specialists visited and worked with the maternity departments of Cornwall Regional, St Ann's Bay and Victoria Jubilee hospitals, where they had the opportunity to share ideas with the staff; the visiting professionals found the enthusiasm and reception of their local colleagues most rewarding.
Wait-a-minute campaign
Dr Makdad said that the changes which Dr Rudolph Stevens had implemented at Victoria Jubilee Hospital since his arrival in June 2008 were instrumental in improving care, patient flow and signage.
"I was very excited about how Dr Stevens received an initiative that I am trying to start in my hospitals in Virginia. It is the 'Wait-a-minute' campaign to delay immediate cord clamping at delivery for newborns. This delay of one minute will give the infant an additional 30 per cent more blood volume which has been shown to be very helpful in both the short term and long term (six months) with some common neonatal conditions," he said. "Beverly McInnis had the opportunity to discuss during our stay how we benchmark our neonatal outcomes and have improved our oral feeding programme to the very low birth weight neonates."
Discussions and questions
The neonatal specialists have been working on gathering additional supplies, information, and protocols to follow up on many discussions and questions.
Makdad and McInnis said they enjoyed the opportunity to collaborate with colleagues in Jamaica. They were very impressed with the scope of practice of the paediatric staff with whom they came into contact and they look forward to an ongoing relationship with the medical personnel they had met.