In the morning, we walk over to the hospital to meet our transportation to the rural community of El Tololar, where we will visit the Health Post located there. We all pile into the back of a red Toyota truck and head to the countryside, something we would not consider doing without seatbelts back in the States. When we arrive at the health post, there are numerous patients waiting outside on benches for treatment. There is a massive mango tree next to an equally sizable tamarind tree out front providing ample shade from the hot sun.
The health post is divided into six rooms. In the first room, patients can receive routine dental cleanings, extractions and infection care on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. The Dental specialist explains that she does not have the most sophisticated equipment and needs a better dental lamp, but it is enough to provide needed services here. The second room is designated for Women’s Health.
There are speculums for PAPs that are sent out to the health center in La Mantica for sterilization, as there is no autoclave here. They prepare the slides at the post, but are read by pathology in Leon at Heodra hospital. Most of the important information about pregnant women is on the walls. There is a map indicating how many pregnant women are in each sector that the Post serves. Another chart documents patient name, MR number, expected delivery date, etc…
This is the theme at the post, all important information is on the walls. The third room is the doctor’s office where consultations and documentation occurs. Medical records are arranged by date of birth in vanilla folders much like we are used to seeing at home. They even have sophisticated forms to document medical visits that are generated and distributed by the Ministry of Health. If you looked at one of these forms at home, you would think it came from one of our clinics! Although this community lacks most of the resources we take for granted, they take pride in the level of health care that they provide.
