Nightingale Medical Center Redefining Healthcare to Humanity
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- February 22, 2021
Last week we had a chat with the administrator of Nightingale Medical Centre, Kisumu, Mrs Edwina Shisanya, and here below is some information she shared with us about the medical facility that has a story behind its name, and also the name which laid the foundation of the nursing profession as we know it in these modern times.
Nightingale Medical Centre offers a wide range of services from routine health examinations to managing chronic conditions, as well as inpatient services.
It got its name from Dame Florence Nightingale.
Who was Florence Nightingale?
Florence Nightingale (1820-1910), known as “The Lady with the Lamp,” was a British nurse, social reformer and statistician best known as the founder of modern nursing. Her experiences as a nurse during the Crimean War were foundational in her views about sanitation. She established St. Thomas’ Hospital and the Nightingale Training School for Nurses in 1860. Her efforts to reform healthcare greatly influenced the quality of care in the 19 and 20 centuries.
It is against this background that Nightingale Medical Centre was built.
Inpatient Services
The Kondele Medical Centre (located at the bustling Kondele metropolis along the Kibos Road) was established in March 1st 1993, but before that, they had a clinic in Kisumu town, and since there was demand for inpatient care at the time, the Kondele unit was thus established to provide inpatient care services.
The Milimani Center (now 6 years old) was established due to the increasing demand and need for professional healthcare services they have been giving, and since Kondele clinic was not able to meet this need and demand, prompted the establishment of the new unit which is located along Okore Road.
The Milimani centre is a 70 bed capacity facility while Kondele has 55 beds space.
These are still not sufficient due to the increasing number of medical care services they give, and the facility has plans to expand the medical centre at the Milimani unit to cater for this increased demand.
Equity Bank has been instrumental in their growth, providing capital in the infrastructural development, equipment procurement, and even providing liquidity as at a time as this of COVID-19 to keep the hospital afloat, since most of their patients pay in invoice which takes up to 90 days to be available for the hospital’s use.
Community Outreach Services
The Kondele facility does a lot to its surrounding community and through its partnerships with other organizations, they are able to provide many services for free, including running medical camps within the community.
From MCH, TB care, VCT and HIV these are services that are provided freely at the Kondele clinic to the members of the public.
People caring for people
Nightingale currently serve patients from within and around Kisumu County and also those who come from as far as Narok, Busia, Kakamega counties among many others.
Nightingale has been built around a community of humanity. They serve all communities no matter their background, creed, religion, gender, class, etc. hence their mantra “People Caring for People”. This has been their call since its founding, and has through word of mouth, not using any known marketing mixes reached out to patients from the far-flung corners of this republic of their reputable service provision.
Nightingale has always played a key role in Kisumu. Whenever there has been strife in the public health facilities, its doors have always been open to receive and attend to the patients at all times, at no or minimal cost to them; this has endeared them to the local community and the would be patients from neighboring towns.
And in emergency situations where the patients need more advanced care services, Nightingale would always refer them to other health care providers where they will be attended to professionally and also they are able to afford.
Future plans of Nightingale Medical Centre, is a nursing school in remembrance and in the footsteps of “The Lady with the Lamp,” Florence Nightingale.
