Abstract
Purpose:
To compare systems indicators and delivery methods for community-based vs. hospital-based surgical outreach eye programs conducted by various eye care institutions in Nepal over a year.
Methods:
Programmatic data from 18 community-based and 8 hospital-based eye camps conducted through various eye care institutions in Nepal were analyzed for systems and delivery indicators including: the total number and type of camps, number and type of healthcare provider present at each camp, total number of patients screened, total number of surgeries performed, number and type of cataract surgeries/non-cataract procedures performed, and post operative follow-up protocol utilized by each institution.
Results:
From the 26 eye camps included in this sample, 16784 patients were screened for eye pathologies and 2330 received cataract removal - with a majority (98.39%) getting PC-IOL implantation. There was no significant difference in the number of males and females treated at these camps. The total number of ophthalmologists at the various eye care institutions ranged from 2 to 25, however, usually only one ophthalmologist was present at each eye camp. Average team size was 10 at community-based surgical camp vs. 8 at hospital-based surgical camps. Average follow up ranged from 1 to 30 days post-operative care, with 65.3% of the programs conducting only one-day post-operative follow-up care.
Conclusions:
Eye care institutions in Nepal organized more hospital-based surgical outreach eye programs than community-based surgical camps per year. Both types of camps effectively screened and operated on a large numbers of patients. Clinical protocols and systems delivery protocols utilized to carry out the hospital-based vs. community-based eye camps did not differ between institutions. Further studies analyzing financial data and resource utilization for surgical outreach eye programs are necessary to increase cataract surgery coverage in resource limited settings throughout the world.
Keywords: 460 clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: health care delivery/economics/manpower •
465 clinical (human) or epidemiologic studies: systems/equipment/techniques