VHC Medical Brigade Brings Quality Healthcare Services to Rural Honduras

Booz Allen is recognized with a Philanthropy Award for its technical and project management support of an ambitious effort that improves lives.

It started with Hurricane Mitch in 1998, when most of the medical support structure of Honduras—one of Central America’s most impoverished countries—was wiped out.

When reports of the damage reached the U.S, the Chief of Family Practice at the Virginia Hospital Center (VHC) was compelled to action, and medical personnel started organizing. In less than six months, a team of doctors, nurses, and support personnel went to Honduras for a week to provide services to the poorest of the poor.

Ten years later, the VHC Medical Brigade is still bringing quality healthcare services to Hondurans with a team of 80 surgeons, doctors, nurses, ophthalmologists, optometrists, and support personnel. They deliver surgery, general medical, vision, physical therapy, pharmacy, and audiology services during annual weeklong missions. 

The Brigade’s mission has also expanded to include the Remote Village Project—a public-private partnership providing Community Health Worker training to leaders in select remote Honduran villages, among other initiatives—and eye care services to the U.S. Army’s humanitarian missions in Central America. But the Brigade’s infrastructure was not keeping up with its growth, so they asked Booz Allen Hamilton for help.

Booz Allen has provided technical, strategic marketing, operational, communications, and fundraising expertise to the project for over two years. In addition to developing the Brigade’s strategic business and grants management plans, the team created a state-of-the-art website.

The team also helped formalize the Brigade’s strategic planning process and support its vision to be a model for sustainable health development in Honduras. They established a long-range fundraising strategy and grants application package that provides a new avenue of funding for the Brigade, which had formerly relied on individual donations. In addition, Booz Allen made a significant monetary contribution to the Brigade.

Booz Allen Honored for its Pro Bono Support

The firm’s pro bono support has kept pace with the Brigade’s extensive accomplishments, and in June 2008, the Philanthropy Awards honored Booz Allen’s commitment in making “The Greatest Impact on a Local Nonprofit.” Sponsored by The Washington Business Journal and Greater DC Cares, the event recognized the team led by vice president Robin Portman and two project managers, senior associate Beth Mahan and associate Bob Page.

And a tremendous amount of support is needed for this effort: In 2007, the Brigade provided 7,297 patients with health-related services in adult and pediatric medicine and eye care, and 357 with physical therapy. Some patients received multiple services. In addition, the Brigade prescribed and dispensed 2,278 pairs of refurbished eyeglasses.

At a hospital in the town of Comayagua, the Brigade’s 23-member surgical team performed 89 procedures—many life-changing—including plastic surgery, correction of wandering eyes, gynecological and obstetrical procedures, and colostomy closures, while its two-person audiology team provided 225 services, including fitting 54 hearing aids.

“Over the years, we’ve developed extremely efficient methods for processing and treating patients while still maintaining our high quality of medical care,” says Dr. Barry Byer, who leads the Brigade. “Our medical team works year-‘round stateside with our dedicated and deeply motivated volunteers to acquire, inventory, pack, and palletize a huge amount of supplies, equipment, and medication that we’ll need during our week’s stay.

“It takes several trips to Honduras prior to the mission to make preparations,” he continues. “The hard work of the Lion’s Club of Comayagua and other groups in Honduras is integral to our success. They select sites for our clinics, receive and store our supplies, triage surgery patients, and tend to all the unforeseen details that spring up while we’re there. Cooperation and hard work ensure that, come November, we can hit the mission field running and provide the maximum number of services to the maximum number of people.”

“All people deserve access to quality healthcare,” Page says. “Through this partnership, we supply rural communities with tools to improve healthcare for their residents, and the Brigade makes a significant and lasting impact that extends far beyond its limited stay in Honduras.”

“An Intense Week that Requires Intense Preparation”

Pre-planning for Brigade missions is vital, says Dr. Byer. “For example, we pre-package all medications into single patient quantities with Spanish labels to speed up the dispensing process. We pre-print tickets for the number of patients we can handle and give them to Honduran community leaders for distribution with a flyer describing what we can do. We set up in locations with controlled access and fences, such as a school. Communication is critical for the patient’s comfort and to ensure they receive proper treatment and after care, so we have 50 local interpreters at each location who facilitate consultations with the doctors and escort the patients to service areas.”

Booz Allen contributed its knowledge of the Honduran water sector to help the Brigade support its Remote Village Project, a reproducible model of primary and preventive healthcare interventions staffed by volunteers and implemented in two villages, Valle Bonito and San Antonio de la Libertad. In addition to empowering community leaders with health worker training and health education, it also provides public works development projects and access to clean water, sanitation, and healthcare services.

Members of the Remote Village Project inspect a water tank in Valle Bonito, Honduras
photo copyright: Booz Allen Hamilton

The firm also helped create and participates in the megacommunity that supports the Project. A megacommunity is Booz Allen’s ground-breaking approach to problem solving in which the private, nonprofit, and public sectors, including the military, collaborate on solutions. The Remote Village Project megacommunity includes Engineers Without Borders, the Peace Corps, Lions Clubs International, and Honduran non-governmental organizations.

Phase 1 of the VHC project focused on the development of a strategic business plan, grants management, and strategic communications. Booz Allen is now providing project management for Phase 2, which is focused on financial management, organizational and governance structure development, establishing metrics to measure progress towards goals, and continued support of grants and strategic communications, including:

• Assisting the Brigade in identifying specific grant opportunities and prioritizing action items
• Analyzing the Brigade’s options for efficiently managing a larger enterprise as it grows
• Establishing metrics and collecting data to measure attainment of goals and track health outcomes and trends
• Assisting with the design of education and behavior modification health interventions in remote villages

In November 2007, Booz Allen staff traveled to Honduras to observe the Brigade during its annual mission in Lamani, Villa de San Antonio, La Libertad, San Jeronimo, and Comayagua. Staff will visit Honduras again in November 2008 to observe and apply what they’ve learned in support of the Brigade.

“It’s an exhausting process and an exhilarating one,” says Byer. “Much of what we take for granted in the U.S. is missing from the lives of these people—no toothbrushes, no pre-natal vitamins, no crutches or medication for even the most basic needs. We provide every patient with vitamins, de-worming medication, analgesics, and anything else prescribed by the doctor—and a toothbrush, toothpaste, soap, and shampoo. We make such an incredible impact in people’s lives. It’s the most satisfying work I can imagine.”

story posted October 28, 2008

Additional Information

• Philanthropy Awards Honors Booz Allen for its Great Impact on Local Nonprofits — The firm is recognized for its longstanding support of Neediest Kids and the Virginia Hospital Center’s Medical Brigade.