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Roberto Clemente Santa Ana Health Clinic

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The content below is not actively maintained and may be out of date. We last updated the content below in 2009.

Robert Clemente Santa Ana Health Clinic did not meet our criteria for further evaluation (see below).

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We investigated the Roberto Clemente Santa Ana Health Clinic because it works to increase access to primary care, an approach we find promising.

What they do

We reviewed the Roberto Clemente Clinic's website1 and spoke to Juan Muñoz, Vice-chairman of the organization, on the phone.2 Mr. Muñoz told us that his organization funds a single clinic in rural Nicaragua that provides doctor care 7 days a week, dental care once a week, vaccinations, Vitamin A supplements, referral to the hospital, deworming in local schools, and health education for the local community. In 2008, the most commonly treated problems were respiratory infections, urinary system infections, high blood cholesterol, headache, and parasites.3

Evaluation

We note that the clinic's expenses and donated revenues of the clinic have been expanding rapidly over the past few years without being accompanied by an increased number of patient visits.4

Year
Patient visits
Expenses
Revenues
2005
No data
$63,750
$117,551
2006
10,143
$144,481
$160,431
2007
8,223
$186,948
$179,892
2008
8,464
No data
No data

Based on this data, we are concerned that the clinic is unable to use additional donations to increase the number of patients it can serve. Because of this question and the others listed below, we cannot confidently recommend that donors support the Roberto Clemente Clinic.

Unanswered questions

  • Patient outcomes. What proportion of treatments are successful? How serious are the conditions for which patients are being treated?
  • Program choice. Is the clinic focusing on the most cost-effective and proven programs? Why are there vaccine shortages?
  • Expansion activities. Why haven't past expansions in expenses resulted in more patient visits? Will current plans for expansion result in more patients being treated?

Materials provided

We have asked Mr. Muñoz for permission to publish the transcript of our phone conversation, but have not yet received permission.

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