The Biamba Marie Mutombo Hospital and Research Center is located in the commune of Masina, one of the most densely populated and impoverished quadrants of the capital city of Kinshasa. Population estimates for the area vary from 1.5 to 3 million inhabitants.

Since 1982, the country has been divided first into 306, then 515 health zones, covering both urban and rural areas. A health zone is a geographic entity with the responsibility to ensure health care delivery to 100,000 to 200,000 people. Each health zone possesses a referral hospital and around 20 health centers serving around 5,000 inhabitants each. Most of the hospitals and health centers in the country are totally decrepit and cannot assume their role.

Phase 1 of the new hospital will include the following services: Pediatrics, Surgery, Internal Medicine, Emergency Room, Intensive Care, and Ambulatory Services. These services will be supported by Radiology, Laboratory and other ancillary services and will open in a step-wise fashion, starting with 100 beds to increase to 150 beds during the first 6 months and with the expectation to ramp up to full capacity (300 beds) after 18 to 24 months.

At full capacity, it will include 300 beds and will offer the following services to the population:

1. Pediatrics - 60 beds
2. Gynecology/Obstetrics/Women’s Health - 70 beds
3. Internal Medicine - 50 beds
4. Surgery (general and subspecialties) - 50 beds (three operating room fully equipped)
5. Emergency Medicine
6. Intensive Care - 12 beds
7. Outpatient Care
8. Laboratory services - hematology, biochemistry, serology and microbiology
9. Radiology (Ultrasounds - Sterilizations) (MRI, 16 slice CT scanner)

A special focus will be placed on maternal and child health where the burden of illness and death is particularly heavy, and will also address emerging diseases such as diabetes, stroke, cancer, and infectious diseases, especially HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. Ambulatory care services will support and feed the in-patient services.

Targets

• All persons in need of secondary and tertiary health care
• Persons referred by primary health care centers surrounding the Hospital
• High-risk pregnancies
• Sick and at-risk children
• Medical students
• Physicians in training
• Researchers and academicians (university faculty)

Research Facility

The new hospital will incorporate a Research Center in the near future, but the emphasis now is to open Phase 1.

Educational/Technical Programs:

The Dikembe Mutombo Foundation will sponsor Congolese public health students to study in the U.S. to enhance their medical training. Training will focus on short-term programs in the fields of: laboratory, quality control, epidemiology, rural health, hospital/pharmacology administration and management. The program beneficiaries are expected to become the nucleus for developing the new hospital and rebuilding the deteriorated health services system in the capital city.

Telemedicine will play an integral role in the Biamba Marie Mutombo Hospital and Research Center. In simple terms, telemedicine electronically links a physician with a patient in a remote location. For example, a physician in Connecticut could be examining a patient and consulting with the patient_s physician in Congo without ever leaving their local hospital. The net result is a diagnostic consultation that directly benefits the patient and provides a valuable learning experience for the medical professionals on both ends of the session. Medical Missions for Children is donating the Polycom satellite equipment for the telemedicine program.