Around the Hospital

 Kapsowar is an old hospital with a number of separate buildings for the various wards.  There is also a nursing school and a nearby theology school, all affiliated with the AIC, African Inland Church. Patients come from a wide area - the nearest referral hospital for those who need a higher level of care, is in Eldoret which is about 75 kilometers away or nearly 2 hours by car. 

The most active clinical areas are Maternity, the Surgical "Theater", the Newborn Unit, and the Outpatient Department.  On staff are several American general/plastic surgeons, an American Obstetrician, a Kenyan general surgeon, a Kenyan Orthopedist and an American dentist.  A Canadian Family Physician is the Medical Director and his work is primarily administrative. Kapsowar is a training site for the Kabarak University Family Medicine Residency -currently, there is one resident rotating through. There are also several Medical Officers (docs who have completed medical school and an internship) and several Clinical Officers (like our PA's) who handle the bulk of the outpatient clinic work. .....and there are volunteers like us and Dr. Lisa who come for varying durations to help out! 

.....the back entrance to the hospital

...........the main front entrance where patients enter; "Casualty" is the ER

....this is an afterhours view of the waiting area for the outpatient department and ER

....notice the signs for NHIF which is the Kenyan insurance plan that many of our patients have

.....the buildings are surrounded by hedges which are carefully manicured

....Kapsowar is a "paperless" hospital - all lab reports and X Ray pictures are entered into the electronic medical record which we view on the computers in the doctors' office; we also type in all of our progress notes and orders for meds, etc

......there are separate wards for maternity/newborn, male medical, male surgical, female medical, female surgical, and general pediatrics!