In the News
Life in Deschapelles: The HAS Pharmacy
This article is one in an occasional series about the beauty and uniqueness of living and working in the Artibonite Valley of central Haiti. The remote location offers the HAS staff and volunteers a breadth of experiences and also provides an exposure to the challenges of providing essential services in a resource-poor area.
Kim Robinson has been at HAS since the fall of 2007 when she arrived from Alberta, Canada, with her husband, Rick, who is the HAS Director of Finance. A trained Pharmacy Technician, Kim assisted the pharmacy staff when she first arrived and now is assisting the local staff to organize the Medical Depot. She shares these insights into the pharmacy and how it serves a population where many are illiterate and may be taking medication for the first time.
The Hôpital Albert Schweitzer (HAS) Haiti pharmacy is a very busy one, filling about 200 prescriptions each day. At times when patients come to have their prescriptions filled, the noise level in the pharmacy is intense but the staff does not let it distract them from their job.
In watching what at first seemed to be chaotic, I was impressed to see the flow of the pharmacy and how well it worked. The patient comes to the first window with a prescription and hands it to the pharmacy technician who calculates the quantity needed. The technician returns the prescription slip to the patient, who then stands in line to pay the data entry/cashier. The cashier stamps “PAYE” (“paid”) on the slip and returns it to the patient along with a computer-generated receipt stapled to it. The patient then goes and stands in line again to have the prescription filled. You rarely see a patient become angry about having to wait, which may be seen in other parts of the world.
The pharmacy technicians do not have computers that provide labels with the name of the drug, doctor's name and directions such as w
e are used to getting on a prescription bottle. Here at HAS, the pharmacy uses special pharmacy bags that on the front panel have graphics depicting morning, midday, afternoon and evening. The pharmacy technician draws circles for the proper time slot and writes the amount of pills the patient is to take during that time. The technician also writes the name of the drug and the number of pills in the bag. When the patient is handed the filled prescription, the technician verbally explains how to take the medications. I have always wondered how much of that information is actually retained after the long day these patients have had.
The Hospital has a second pharmacy, which has been operating since 2004, for the HIV and TB medications. Joel Metelus and Jonel Foustin work in this pharmacy and both are caring and conscientious pharmacists whose vision is to serve all patients and to help them retain thier health for as long as possible. Joel and Jonel care for 470 adult and 55 pediatric HIV patients. They see each of these patients every month and take at least 15 minutes for patient counseling to discuss the many side effects of HIV medication. When I asked Joel and Jonel about the number of TB patients they see, they said it is hard to calculate because they get new TB patients everyday for a treatment that lasts eight months.
I am very lucky to know the pharmacy team. They are all kind and caring people where I know I can get a hug when I need one. I would love to work with them but after being in pharmacy 30 years I realize that one more body in this one would upset the flow that works so well for them.
The HAS Pharmacy professional and friendly staff consist of: Kesner Louis, Pharmacy Manager, employed for 9 years; Joel Metelus, Pharmacy Assistant for the HIV Pharmacy, employed 10 years; Jean Vilna, Pharmacy Technician, employed 28 years; Rodrigue Camilus, Pharmacy Technician, employed 25 years; Kettelie Cene, Data Entry/Cashier Clerk, employed 7 years; Marie-Dieula Paul, Data Entry/Cashier Clerk, employed 8 years; Zetrenne B. Justin (Mdm Baja), Pharmacy Technician and packages TB medicines for L'Escale, the HAS TB village, employed for 19 years; Jonel Foustin, Resident Pharmacist, employed for 6 months.