The System
Building the foundation that carries proven care into practice
Strong emergency care depends on systems, institutions, policies, data, and coordination that ensure lifesaving care is available, accessible, and continuously improving.Â
HAPSA works with multi-sector partners to strengthen the pathways that carry proven approaches from knowledge into practice.
Our Programs and Projects
The PCC strengthen toxicology care, education and research infrastructure. Lead poisoning, snakebite and organophosphate are the primary areas of our work. In collaboration with Dhulikhel Hospital, we runs a 24/7 poison information center, providing support for patient care. We have tested and institutionalized a poison information center in Nepal for the first time. Through PCC, we work with toxicologists across the globe to support our poison center, train poison center specialists, conduct monthly webinars, offer a toxicology training fellowship, conduct advocacy and conduct public awareness
Sudden cardiac arrest can happen to anyone, anywhere and survival depends on speed. When bystanders perform CPR and use an AED within minutes, survival rates can reach over 50%. With support from the America Nepal Medical Foundation (ANMF), HAPSA Nepal has installed AEDs in strategic public locations in Nepal, and trained personnel to use them, so that when cardiac arrest strikes, help is seconds away instead of minutes. Our team is working with ViVest to make Nepali language available in AEDs and this pilot evidence generate inform policy makers on AED strategy for the country.
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Nepal's snakebite treatment centers report nearly 14,500 bites and 94 deaths a year, yet a third of surveyed centers had experienced an antivenom shortage in the past year, and five had none in stock at all. HAPSA surveyed 58 treatment centers nationwide and mapped their locations and antivenom supply using GIS. This is being built into a dynamic map is designed to guide where antivenom, transportation links, and community education are needed most. We have also developed resources for community responders on acute response after a snakebite.
We use formal assessment like the UN Disaster Risk Reduction Toolking and the the WHO HEAT Tool to formally assess the gaps in emergency care and community emergency response (including during times of disaster). These assessment guided priorities for our organization, partners, and the local systems, and we use these formal assessment to advocate government engagement across projects.Â
Most people who die from medical emergencies never reach a hospital because of the absence of a working pathway from household to responders to ambulance to hospital. In coordination with Gulmi district stakeholders, HAPSA Nepal has completed a initial stakeholder assessment of district health system in Gulmi. We are designing a district-wide emergency care model that connect those pieces: community first responders trained in every municipality, coordinated ambulance dispatch with call-ahead referral, standardized triage at every level of facility, and a district dashboard that tracks response times and referral outcomes. The model is seeking funding to be tested, and designed from the start, assessing for multi-year outcomes, and ultimately to support the Nepali governmet to scale elsewhere in Nepal.
Evidence behind this work
All research →
