{"id":13963,"date":"2014-08-14T05:00:40","date_gmt":"2014-08-14T11:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tested-neuron.flywheelsites.com\/?p=13963"},"modified":"2015-05-14T15:44:13","modified_gmt":"2015-05-14T21:44:13","slug":"africa-series-geel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/africa-series-geel\/","title":{"rendered":"In Uganda, Delivering Dignity through Healthcare"},"content":{"rendered":"

This is the last post of\u00a0a 14-part series<\/a> on entrepreneurship in Africa and the companies who participated in the inaugural Unreasonable East Africa<\/a> program.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

When he was in his teens<\/strong>, Gideon Emorut began suffering from chronic migraines. The nearest hospital\u00a0in his hometown of Kampala, Uganda, was so overcrowded and understaffed\u2014the region where he\u2019s from has one doctor for roughly every 46,000 residents\u2014that it took a month before Emorut was able to see a medical professional. He was eventually diagnosed with an advanced and potentially fatal case of cerebral malaria.<\/p>\n

That experience\u2014and his frustrations with lack of access to medical care in Uganda\u2014led Emorut to a career as a physician. After completing his studies at Uganda\u2019s Makerere University in 2009, he conducted a research project with the World Health Organization, researching the state of Uganda\u2019s healthcare system in rural and marginalized regions of the country. In September 2011, he put what he had learned into practice by founding GEEL Medical Services<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cQuality healthcare should be everyone\u2019s right,\u201d Emorut says. \u201cBut when you dig down, you see that\u2019s far from the case.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quality healthcare should be everyone\u2019s right. But when you dig down, you see that’s far from the case.<\/i> Tweet This Quote<\/a><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To many westerners, GEEL (the name comes from Gideon and his wife\u2019s initials) would seem like a typical hospital. But for the people of Tororo, it has been transformative. In a region where the medical options are either sporadically open and chronically understaffed government hospitals or expensive private facilities, GEEL is open 24 hours a day with prices most can afford.<\/p>\n

The hospital\u2019s 30-person staff offers typical medical\u00a0services like emergency care, surgery, pharmacy services, and prenatal and maternity care\u2014this in a region where one in 16 women dies due to complications from childbirth (versus one in 4,000 in the West). They also provide outreach and educational programs about sanitation and HIV\/AIDS prevention.<\/p>\n

Emorut has been able to charge lower prices by striking partnerships with various government hospitals, Uganda\u2019s Infectious Disease Institute, and other organizations. These government-funded centers send any patients they can to GEEL and pay above GEEL\u2019s normal asking price for services. That, in turn, allows GEEL to keep its fees low.<\/p>\n

In the three years since its founding, GEEL has transitioned from three two-room clinics to a single 15-room hospital and has served more than 50,000 patients. The move from small clinics to a centralized hospital last year did set things back in terms of geographic distribution, but the tradeoff was that it enabled GEEL to centralize staff and resources to provide a wider range of services around the clock. According to Emorut, every month, the hospital saves the lives of more than 500 people who would otherwise die.<\/p>\n

Emorut is currently trying to raise $1.4 million to build a larger facility, as GEEL rents its current space and frequently has to outsource space for surgeries, and to continue expanding the services his hospital can provide as well as replicate the GEEL model in other regions of East Africa.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the healthcare sector in Africa, and in Uganda particularly, there is a belief that patients will have to wait for the doctors,\u201d Emorut says. \u201cBut we want our doctors waiting to see patients. Our patients are our bosses, and when the boss comes in, you take care of it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How one Ugandan doctor’s near-death experience prompted him to create a new healthcare model for his country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":121,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1537,476,1541,1503,1492],"tags":[326,2247,1397,267,1409,1408,383,1407,1173],"class_list":["post-13963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-africa","category-article","category-2014_east_africa","category-east_africa","category-health-tags","tag-africa","tag-article","tag-bfp","tag-health","tag-beard","tag-profile","tag-starting","tag-uea","tag-uganda"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nIn Uganda, Delivering Dignity through Healthcare - UNREASONABLE<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/africa-series-geel\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"In Uganda, Delivering Dignity through Healthcare - UNREASONABLE\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"How one Ugandan doctor's near-death experience prompted him to create a new healthcare model for his country.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/africa-series-geel\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Unreasonable\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-08-14T11:00:40+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-05-14T21:44:13+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/FB-card-02.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1201\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"631\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Nate Beard\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@https:\/\/twitter.com\/natebeard_\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Nate Beard\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":[\"Article\",\"BlogPosting\"],\"@id\":\"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/africa-series-geel\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/africa-series-geel\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Nate Beard\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/#\/schema\/person\/9bc020006ca0556aacb4afa448ed0420\"},\"headline\":\"In Uganda, Delivering Dignity through Healthcare\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-08-14T11:00:40+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-05-14T21:44:13+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/africa-series-geel\/\"},\"wordCount\":568,\"commentCount\":8,\"keywords\":[\"africa\",\"Article\",\"BFP\",\"Health\",\"Nate Beard\",\"profile\",\"Starting Up\",\"UEA\",\"uganda\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Africa\",\"Article\",\"East Africa 2014\",\"East Africa Program\",\"Health\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/africa-series-geel\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/africa-series-geel\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/unreasonablegroup.com\/articles\/africa-series-geel\/\",\"name\":\"In Uganda, Delivering Dignity through Healthcare - 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