HSS Launches “Medical Bridge” Collaboration with Colombian Medical Center
by Elizabeth Hofheinz, M.P.H., M.Ed., December 12, 2019
Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) has just announced a strategic collaboration with Centro Hospitalario Serena del Mar, the medical center operated by Fundación Santa Fe de Bogotá within the city of Serena del Mar (CHSM) on the north coast of Cartagena, Colombia. Named a “medical bridge,” as part of the project HSS will provide CHSM with “specialist knowledge, training, best practice protocols and access to diagnostic support that will help ensure the highest possible standards of clinical quality and experience for patients from Central and South America.”
“HSS has the privilege and responsibility to advance care and quality of life everywhere, and collaboration with other organizations committed to excellence is proving to be a very effective strategy,” said Louis A. Shapiro, president and CEO of HSS. “Serena del Mar, and its Central Hospital supported HSS, promise to have an outsized impact on quality of life in that part of the world.”
According to the HSS news release, “Serena del Mar is a new city constructed 12 km from the old city port of Cartagena, which offers residents opportunities for an enriched quality of life. Designed by innovative developers, planners, and landscapers, Serena del Mar will provide residents with offerings such as primary and higher education systems, economic opportunities, recreational green spaces and CHSM.”
“At Serena del Mar, we have created a co-mingling of culture and innovation,” said Daniel Haime, president of Serena del Mar. “We wanted to provide residents with everything they may need including the best orthopedic care. HSS is in a class of its own, and its presence in our community will enhance our residents’ health and well-being.”
Laura Robbins, DSW, is Senior Vice President of the Education Institute & Global Affairs at HSS. She commented to OSN, “Centro Hospitalario in Serena del Mar in Cartagena is operated by the same administers and surgeons associated with Fundacion Santa Fe, a general hospital in Bogota that we became familiar with through our international academic activities. We visited Fundacion Santa Fe several times and were very impressed with the orthopedic care they provide. When we learned that the new hospital would be operated by the same team from the hospital in Bogota, we were excited about moving forward with a collaboration that would provide high quality orthopedic care to patients in Colombia and Latin American.”
Asked about daily, “on the ground” collaborations that have proven effective when it comes to these “bridge hospitals,” Robbins told OSN, “Our strategy at HSS as it pertains to global partners is to develop sustainable programs that allow for the transfer of our orthopedic knowledge to international healthcare providers so that they can deliver high-quality care within their country. While the HSS Global team will travel occasionally to the hospital in Serena del Mar, we will utilize video technology and digital learning tools to further the collaboration. This approach will allow the medical team in Centro Hospitalario to build a strong infrastructure with guidance from HSS.”
