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GuriaLa Crosse

Guria, Georgia / La Crosse, Wisconsin

2004-Present


Focus:  Primary Healthcare, Community Health



The Partners

US Partner: Based in La Crosse, Wisconsin, World Services of La Crosse, Inc. is a nonprofit organization that provides the administrative and management functions of the former La Crosse International Health Partnership and manages several international grants focused on health and civil society. Gundersen Lutheran and Franciscan Skemp Mayo Health System are supporting organizations of World Services of La Crosse, Inc. and have representation on its Board of Directors. Gundersen Lutheran is a corporation that operates a tertiary hospital in La Crosse, as well as 26 branch clinics and six hospitals in three adjacent states. Franciscan Skemp Mayo Health System is a teaching hospital and an affiliate of the Mayo Health System. World Services of La Crosse, Inc. also receives support from, and collaborates on this partnership with, Viterbo Unversity, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, Western Wisconsin Technical College, and the Health Science Consortium, as well as the City of La Crosse and the County Health Department.

NIS Partner: The Guria Regional Healthcare Administration Department, which serves a population of approximately 145,000 people.


Partnership Goals and Objectives

The overall goal of the Guria/La Crosse partnership is to establish a replicable and sustainable family-centered primary healthcare model in the Guria Region of Georgia. Specific objectives are to:

  • Establish an effective primary healthcare model in the Guria region.
  • Increase the capacity to train primary care physicians and nurses by developing a regional health education center at the polyclinic in Ozurgeti.
  • Increase the capacity to provide primary care services by establishing a model primary care center.
  • Improve the quality of rural health services in the Guria region by developing appropriate staffing ratios of nurses and physicians on rural area teams.
  • Promote primary healthcare and healthy lifestyles by raising public awareness and increasing the use of primary care in the Guria region.


Key Events

   2004-2006
  • In May 2004, partners signed a Memorandum of Understanding to celebrate the inception of the partnership. 
  • The First Deputy Minister of Health, Labor, and Social Affairs of Georgia visited US partnership institutions, the Center for International Health in Milwaukee, and World Services of La Crosse, Wisconsin in the fall of 2004.
  • In 2004, the Ministry of Labor, Health, and Social Affairs granted the partnership “pilot status" for the implementation of the PHC model in the region within the framework of Georgia’s national primary care reform effort.
  • The partnership Learning Resource Center was opened in October 2004 and equipped with computers.
  • In March 2005, eight Georgian health professionals traveled to La Crosse, Wisconsin, where they received training on clinical practice guidelines, quality assurance, infection control, patient care teams, and triage.
  • During 2006, the partnership organized two regional primary healthcare conferences in Guria. The conferences highlighted partnership progress toward advancing family medicine care and training, as well as discussed strategies to complement the Ministry’s primary healthcare reform efforts in the region.
  • In an effort to promote healthier lifestyle choices and prevent non-communicable diseases, partners organized two community health fairs in the Ozurgeti and Chokhatauri districts in 2006. More than 370 local residents attended these events. 
  • Two partnership representatives participated in the Caucasus Chronic Disease Conference conducted in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi in November 2006.




Key Accomplishments

  • The Regional Training Center at Ozurgeti District Polyclinic officially opened in October 2005. The center provides community-oriented primary care programs and training for healthcare professionals in the region. The partnership and the Ozurgeti District Administration shared the costs of renovating the center and the local municipality provided matching funds.
  • Experts from the Tbilisi Family Medicine Training Center trained 18 nurses from Guria District Polyclinic in the 830-hour family medicine course. The course focused on coordinated nurse-physician teamwork that is essential for effective and efficient care delivery.
  • In October 2006, the La Crosse partners conducted a training of trainers (TOT) family medicine course in Ozurgeti focusing on prevention, assessment, and treatment of hypertension, asthma, and diabetes.
  • Instructors from the Mtskheta Family Medicine Training Center trained physicians and nurses from the Ozurgeti District Polyclinic Ambulatory Unit. Fourteen out of 15 graduates of the 940-hour course for physicians successfully passed the state certification exam in family medicine.
  • The partnership initiated a hypertension screening program for Ozurgeti residents. Patients who come to the Ozurgeti polyclinic have their blood pressure checked and receive advice on treatment options and lifestyle changes if elevated blood pressure is detected.
  • The Guria partners developed a variety of patient education materials on healthy lifestyles and disease prevention. In conjunction with the smoking prevention and cessation classes, the Guria partners started implementing a drug abuse prevention program for school children. The drug prevention classes teach youth about the dangers of taking drugs and the effects that smoking and drugs have on the human body.
  • Based on the findings of a patient satisfaction survey initiated by the partners at Ozurgeti Polyclinic and village ambulatories, the Georgian partners now utilize new educational tools, including publishing health-related articles in local newspapers. The survey recommendations also translated into new procedures instituted at Ozurgeti Polyclinic Ambulatory Unit where patients now receive counseling and educational materials on healthy lifestyles. These materials include brochures developed for the health fair with information on high blood pressure (HBP), malaria, cervical cancer, nutrition, and iodine deficiency.
  • Physicians from the partnership sites, Ozurgeti Polyclinic, and surrounding village ambulatories now use the patient examination standards and practices they adopted from the US partners.
  • The Learning Resource Center is widely used to access current medical resources online, particularly on evidence-based medicine and clinical practice guidelines. LRC resources are also utilized for family medicine training conducted in Ozurgeti by local trainers and the US partners. 
  • In 2006, the partnership purchased and distributed basic medical equipment to the Ozurgeti District Polyclinic and nine village ambulatories to enable staff to apply skills gained through the trainings. The equipment included stethoscopes, ophthalmoscopes, sphygmomanometers, height/weight measurement devices, glucometers, and other essential tools necessary for rural healthcare providers.



Participating Institutions



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Updated on July 31, 2007