Adventist Hospital Leaders in Inter-America Review Accomplishments and Plan Ahead

November 5, 2020 | Miami, Florida, United States | Libna Stevens, Inter-American Division News

Seventh-day Adventist leaders and administrators overseeing the dozens of hospitals and clinics across the Inter-American Division met this week to review accomplishments during the past five years, during the Adventist Health Care Services – Inter-America’s (AHS-IA) board meeting held online. Board members also looked at development plans for the coming years and appointed a new president to head AHS-IA.

AHS-IA was established in 2010 in association with Adventist Health International with headquarters in Loma Linda University in California, United States. It is an organization that exists to strengthen and assist healthcare institutions promoting physical, mental, social, and spiritual wholeness of mankind while fulfilling the mission of the church.

“We had three main dreams in 2015 as we were facing a new quinquennium and the main one was to set a development fund so all [healthcare] institutions with serious needs could benefit to offer better services,” said Elie S. Honore, M.D., president of AHS-IA, during the Nov. 4, online board meeting. The second main goal was for two institutions to be accredited internationally, one being Bella Vista Hospital in Puerto Rico, which obtained accreditation by the Joint Commission, and Antillean Adventist Hospital in Curacao, which is still engaged in the process of accreditation still, he said.  Third, the goal was to have at least three more institutions on their way to the same accreditation process achievement, he explained. That’s still being pursued.

According to his report, Dr. Honore shared that from 2015 to the end of 2019, the 14 Adventist operated hospitals that includes a total of 698 beds, saw nearly 60,000 inpatients, nearly 500,000 outpatients and spent nearly 7.5 million dollars on charitable care, Honore reported. “Adventist Healthcare International alone provided 1.5 million dollars for all institutions, plus some support to additional projects,” he said.

Loma Linda University and AHS-IA also invested funds and professional assistance to 36 hospital administrators and church leaders in a special three-session hospital administration certification program in 2017.

Board members reviewed funds spent on increased premium liability insurance for all institutions obtained during the past five years, hospitals that benefitted anywhere from new ambulances, allowances for additional construction on hospital premises, attendance to Global Health conferences, clinical laboratory and imaging equipment, operating room equipment, among others.

For 2020, the picture is distorted, said Dr. Honore.  “All the plans we had for 2020 were scrapped completely as the pandemic hit. The budget was reduced to 50 percent and then scrapped too,” said Honore. The year continued with the balance left on last year’s contribution.”

Because of the pandemic, hospitals had to operate cutting staff and reducing salaries, obtaining personal protective equipment and procuring more supplies, serving patients  with less staff on the clock, among other challenges, he added.

“We don’t know how long this pandemic is going to last but we are thankful to God, AHI, AdventHealth and the Inter-American Division for their committed partnership in supporting our medical institutions across the territory,” said Honore.

Development projects in 2021 will include providing new laboratory centers, , operating room modernization, refurbishing of the hemodialysis services, restructuring governance and operations, a field hospital for residents training and more throughout several hospitals in the IAD, reported Honore.

The benefits of having all hospitals and clinics under the umbrella of AHS-IA has been one that has seen its share of progress, added Honore.

“Since 2016 our medical institutions have benefited from the umbrella of AHI and AdventHealth through our AHS-IA partnership and have continued providing excellent healthcare services year after year,” he added.

Dr. Honore, who has held the position of president of AHI-IA since 2010, and previous to that served as IAD’s health ministries director for 20 years, will be officially retiring as of Dec. 31, 2020.

“Even though you began retirement in 2017 you continued to serve the church and we have benefited from your service,” said Pastor Elie Henry, president of the church in the Inter-American Division and chairman of the AHS-IA board. “You have committed for all these years to provide the best for our [health] institutions and we thank you for your dedicated service.”

Dr. Richard Hart, president of Loma Linda University Health, thanked Dr. Honore for his efforts to strengthen health institutions. “We appreciate working with the IAD. You are one of the regions we partner with the most around the world,” he said. “We want to assure you that we want to continue to collaborate with you and keep him [Honore] involved still,” Hart said.

Franck Geneus, M.D., 48, who has been serving as associate director of AHS-IA sine 2017 and chief medical director of the Haiti Adventist Hospital in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, since 2012, was appointed by the board to take over as president of AHS-IA effective Jan. 1, 2021. Dr. Geneus recently obtained an executive certificate Health System Leadership from Loma Linda University.

From 1998 to date, Dr. Geneus has been part of a team involved in developing management and evaluation programs in several countries in Central Africa, Asia and Haiti, and served as a public health specialist in health care management with the United Nations since 2003.

Dr. Geneus will serve in his new post while stationed in Haiti.

Also voted in for another term was Liza Christian as treasurer of AHS-IA for the next five years.