A Vibrant Healthcare for Hard-to-reach Communities in East Africa.
Enabling Equitable Access to Quality and Affordable Care for All.
Improving Equitable Access and Quality of Healthcare;
Making Care Affordable for All
Our vision
A vibrant healthcare for rural and hard-to-reach communities in East Africa. The Upper Nile Institute (UNI) believes in, and commits to the Universal Health Coverage of “moving together to build a healthier world.”
Healthcare Challenge
Hard-to-reach populations such as the refugees, internally displaced persons, and rural & sub-urban communities in East Africa have longer commute time, fewer care options, and receive little to no preventive care. They do not visit doctors regularly until at the later stages of illness. As a result, they experience higher death rates and worse health outcomes. One of the main bottlenecks for improving access to healthcare in hard-to-reach areas has been the severe shortage of health workers and lack of capacity coupled with inadequate healthcare facilities.
Our Solutions
Hybrid Healthcare
We integrate tele-consultations with rapid point-of-care testing to address the significant challenges of lack of access, poor quality, and high cost of care—the “triple aim.” Using technology to establish ‘virtual visits’ between patients and providers dramatically improves access to care for hard-to-reach populations as well as reducing overall costs of receiving care.
Medical Education & Training
We locally train youths to become qualified medical assistants, clinical officers, nurse practitioners, medical lab technicians, med techs and etc., to assist in roles that were traditionally physician-centric to increase health workforce capacity.
For example, using care protocols, trained medical assistants can serve a diverse set of roles in the ambulatory setting; from initiating patient visits by collecting relevant history, scribing for the physician in the electronic medical record, and finally closing visits by ensuring that patients understand the plan of care and scheduling follow-ups.
Why Upper Nile Institute
The Upper Nile Institute (UNI) does not only enhance the capacity of the health workforce, but also improve access and quality, reduce costs of care, and expand outreach.
1. Improves Health Outcomes
Resource-limited rural and hard-to-reach communities have limited access to medical centers and in-house expertise for urgent care. We remotely connect them to healthcare providers and specialists. This improves their health outcomes, reduces the need to travel long distances, and delays in seeking care. Timely referrals are made for cases that require physical examination.
2. Access to Quality Care
For care to be safe, effective, and people-centered, and delivered in a timely, equitable, and efficient way, healthcare decision-making should be based upon the best available evidence and clinical expertise. Training gaps explain why so many clinicians struggle to connect with patients. Continuing education and training improve care.
3. Affordable & Scalable Model
Cost of care strong influences patient’s preference. Many individuals in rural communities delay seeking care until their health problem becomes critical. For certain health conditions and diseases, early intervention decreases the cost of treatment and drastically improves patient’s prognosis. We reduce medical costs and eliminate unnecessary travel expenses – hence reducing delay in seeking care. For every $1.00 spent, $3.50 is saved for hard-to-reach families.
Our Core Values
Integrity
Our operations are guided by unrelenting commitment to honesty, transparency and accountability.
Empathy
We understand community’s needs and priorities before providing solutions and support.
Innovation-centered
We place innovation at the center of our strategies, problem-solving and everyday decision-making.
Latest From Blog
