Five commandments of entreprenuership

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In the bustling Tushauriane area of Kayole, Embakasi, St. Patrick’s hospital is like an oasis in a desert. The level four hospital attends to thousands of patients in the densely populated Eastlands area. For the last 13 years, Ann Maina, the director and founder of the facility, has aspired to provide only the highest quality of care. Although the facility is widely known for its efficient services, it stands out when it comes to maternity care. From the onset, maternity care has always been dear to Mrs. Maina, a nurse. This was cemented into her heart after coming across debilitating and nerve-wracking experiences when she worked as a nurse in one of the local government hospitals. “The experience really left a bad taste in my mouth. I remember one time working in the maternity department, I witnessed nurses beating up an expectant mother in the delivery room. It was a heartbreaking moment for me and I really didn’t want to be part of that,” she recalls. Early in her career, she says she knew there was a way that mothers could deliver babies in a conducive environment, while receiving the best of care. “I felt that mothers should not suffer.” This prompted her to start a maternity home in her rented one-bedroom house, where she could afford mothers the best care she envisaged. For a start, she had a blood pressure monitoring machine, an examination bed and a drug cabinet. Her plan worked. Within a short time, more mothers visited her house, ready to deliver. “At one point, I had three expectant mothers coming to my house seeking assistance as they were ready for delivery. I handled them expertly. As others waited on the couch, I took in the first mother and she had a safe delivery. Within a short time, I ushered the rest into the delivery room and everything went well,” she shares. After making porridge for them, she discharged them after four hours. “Mothers need respect when giving birth. They need to be handled well.” With a vision, she realized that she was meeting a critical need in her society. Having tested the waters, she knew what needed to be done. “My patients needed to sleep on white sheets and pillows and once they have delivered, they need to be wheeled to their beds, be supported together with their babies, with lots of respect,” Naturally, expansion was in her mind, but there was a big problem; she had no money to expand. “I wanted to expand, but banks couldn’t give me money. Luckily, I had a Merry Go Round Chama that gave me some cash to expand.” Even with the cash injection from her Chama, she quickly found out that she couldn’t do more, especially when it comes to equipping a maternity unit. Seeing the potential of her dream, she decided to make a leap of faith and sold her house. With the proceeds, she then bought land and built structures at the current location. “I build the outpatients and the maternity section before the money ran out.” Despite the meager resources, Ann was motivated to keep going. At that point when she was starting out, she says she drew her motivation from the then president, Mwai Kibaki whose rallying call was to create over 500 000 jobs every year. “ I felt like the former president was talking to me directly, asking me to create jobs. With that I just went out and hired my first batch of professionals, including nurses, clinicians and doctors to help me run the show.” She remembers that the government of the day had made the business environment conducive, enabling businesses to make money. “Money became available to businesses through affordable bank loans”. What followed was a growth spurt that saw the business grow exponentially. Since its inception in 2012, St Patrick’s Hospital has become a household name in Kayole and environs. So phenomenal has been the growth that it has spawned a new branch. “As part of our expansion, we were able to buy land in Kenol, Muranga county and build and equip a fully fledged hospital, serving many people in the environs.” Mrs Maina attributes the hospitals' growth to sheer hard-work and determination. She appreciastes the fact that her husband joined and supported her to run the facility. “He could help from day one when I had to rush a patient to another facility in an ambulance. He was also instrumental in designing and building our facility.” Firstly, she says the hospital obtained favor from the locals, who patronized it. Secondly, the partnership with SafeCare, an international quality assurance and standards organization was a game changer. Once they joined SafeCare in 2012, Mrs Maina and her team were signed up for business and quality management training to improve their skills. The first step is assessment, which was an eye-opener for Mrs Maina. SafeCare found out that Ann and her team were not running the facility the right way. “We had no administration office, no systems. SafeCare helped them isolate the gaps and set in motion interventions in a bid to improve themselves. With this, they were able to streamline their record keeping, have audited accounts and a digitalized patient history. Next to identifying gaps, SafeCare provided St. Patrick’s hospital with practical tools, solutions and technical support, including access to finance. After the SafeCare intervention, Mrs Maina says her facility was able to obtain the first loan from Medical Credit Fund under the PharmAccess umbrella. It’s this experience that opened the doors for her to get credit from other institutions. She says that the impact of SafeCare was felt almost instantaneously. Shortly afterward, her facility was able to attract all the big insurers, as well as NHIF, a move that brought in many patients. “When the National Hospital Insurance Fund (NHIF) used to visit us for an evaluation, we never knew what they were looking for, and we didn’t know how to improve. After we started SafeCare and the NHIF visited us again, it was a whole new story’’. St. Patrick became NHIF accredited, ensuring a bigger client and income flow. Patient visits have risen from almost 600 to more than 2000 a month, especially now that they have also managed to contract corporate clients and private medical insurance companies. There’s no doubt that SafeCare has helped Ann to reposition her facility and increase its market value. Safecare also helped Ann and her team to mitigate risks in the workplace, especially by embracing handwashing and separating waste in color-coded bins. For Ann, running the hospital is not just a passionate endeavor, but one that should impact society. This explains why her facility hosts health campaigns to educate the community about hygiene. Safecare has certified the facility as a Level 4 but Mrs Maina is eager to go for the highest certification as well as be ISO-certified. “We have come a long way, and we are going far. Our aim now is to continue offering the highest quality of care to all patients, with dignity and respect.”

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Special Correspondent

Five commandments of entreprenuership

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