Adventist Development and Relief Agency Partners with AdventHealth to Aid Vista del Jardín Medical Center in the Dominican Republic

July 1, 2020 | Silver Spring, Maryland, United States | ADRA International

Dominican Republic healthcare workers on the frontlines of COVID-19 received thousands of personal protective gear, masks and essential supplies to treat critically ill patients at Vista del Jardín Medical Center (Garden View Medical Center) in Santo Domingo.

The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) joined forces with AdventHealth to donate and ship the medical equipment to the Caribbean nation’s hospital. The global shortage of protective gear is one of the major issues that has impacted the response to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in many regions around the world like the Dominican Republic.

Vista del Jardín Medical Center stepped up its operation in unprecedented ways to treat hundreds of patients since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak. The treatment demands for COVID-19 have created financial pressures for the 53-bed hospital.

“Since the state of emergency was declared in the Dominican Republic due to COVID-19, ADRA has provided vital support to care for economically-vulnerable people across various communities served by our hospital. Vista del Jardín Medical Center is in a development stage, and our revenues decreased by 50 percent in March, April, and May. Medical supplies have become much more expensive, which substantially increased our expenditures, at the same time our revenues went down,” says Winston Hiciano, general manager of Vista del Jardin Medical Center. “We are grateful to receive much needed medical supplies through ADRA and AdventHealth during this crisis to continue to provide quality care to patients infected by COVID-19 and fulfill our mission of serving our community with great responsibility and devotion.”

ADRA is working with AdventHealth and other partners to respond to coronavirus relief operations in the Caribbean and in more than 33 countries.

“ADRA has adapted operations and is taking advantage of its infrastructure to support and aid worldwide communities during this pandemic. We are partnering with organizations such as AdventHealth, Airlink, Globus Relief, and Partnership4Humanity to continue to deliver medical supplies and other resources to hospitals and healthcare facilities across multiple provinces and regions and assist long-term during the coronavirus recovery phase,” says Alex Balint, head of social and corporate partnerships for ADRA.

“AdventHealth is pleased to work with ADRA to help meet the needs of people around the world through our international support for Seventh-day Adventist hospitals. During this COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals are facing severe challenges to obtain the necessary protective equipment for their staff and supplies for their patients. Using our combined expertise in logistics, purchasing and materials management, AdventHealth and ADRA can help hospitals obtain materials that would be hard to source if they were acting alone,” says Monty Jacobs, AdventHealth director of global missions. “Our recent shipment to the Dominican Republic and other countries in the Caribbean demonstrates the success of this relationship. AdventHealth looks forward to working with ADRA on similar projects in the future.”

The Dominican Republic has registered 32,568 COVID-19 cases and 747 deaths due to the pandemic. Globally, more than 10.5 million people have contracted the virus, and 512,000* patients have died. (*These numbers are likely to change as the pandemic sweeps the globe.)

ADRA plans to assist communities long-term during the COVID-19 recovery phase. ADRA relief efforts support vulnerable and underserved communities, especially low-income families, elderly people, individuals facing layoffs, and many more, to ensure they receive needed assistance.

To learn more about ADRA’s COVID-19 disaster response or make donations to assist with relief efforts visit ADRA.org.

For interviews with ADRA representatives about ADRA’s COVID-19 response efforts contact press@adra.org.

About ADRA 

The Adventist Development and Relief Agency is the international humanitarian arm of the Seventh-day Adventist Church serving in 118 countries. Its work empowers communities and changes lives around the globe by providing sustainable community development and disaster relief. ADRA’s purpose is to serve humanity so all may live as God intended. For more information, visit ADRA.org.

About Vista del Jardin Medical Center

Vista del Jardín Medical Center was established in 2007 and is one of 15 hospitals and lifestyle centers that are part of Adventist Healthcare Services (AHS-IA) throughout the Inter-American Division of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.  The 53-bed facility offers reliable and high-quality health services, through highly trained personnel, who promote Christian values. Patients have access to gynecology, pediatrics, emergency, internal medicine, oncology, general medicine, gastroenterology, orthopedics, surgery, urology, ophthalmology, internal pharmacy, and cardiology, and other services.

About AdventHealth

AdventHealth (formerly Adventist Health System) is a faith-based, non-profit health care system headquartered in Altamonte Springs, Florida, that operates facilities within nine states across the United States. AdventHealth is the largest not-for-profit Protestant health care provider and one of the largest non-profit health systems in the U.S.  It has nearly 50 hospital campuses and hundreds of care sites in diverse markets throughout the United States. For more information about AdventHealth, visit AdventHealth.com or Facebook.com/AdventHealth.