By Healthcare Facilities Today

Living and working as a clinician in the developing world proved to Containers 2 Clinics founder Elizabeth Sheehan that a well-designed delivery system to increase patient access to simple medical interventions is vital to improving healthcare in remote areas. 

Focusing on smart design and partnering with industry leaders, C2C has developed a new approach that’s working, providing access to care in communities in Namibia and Haiti, Sheehan said in a blog on the Healthcare Design website.

In partnership with Nurture, C2C has created a delivery model that converts shipping containers into health clinics. C2C’s clinics are sustainable, easily transportable, and designed to work well in low-resource settings. One of C2C’s newest clinics opened this year in a rural settlement of more than 8,000 people along the western coast of Namibia. Since opening in February, the clinic has served more than 1,500 patients. Another location opened in Northern Haiti on August 26 and served more than 100 patients in its first two weeks of operations, the blog said.

C2C worked with designers at Nurture to optimize the limited space of the containers to improve patient flow and provide an organized, respectful setting for patient care.

Two 8-foot-by-20-foot shipping containers are fabricated into fully stocked, fully equipped clinics that should last 15 years or more.

Each container includes adaptable water and power hook-ups for the low-resource settings. Appropriate climate control is achieved through efficient ventilation, heat-reflective paint, insulation, and air conditioning, the blog said. Wide windows that sit high on the walls preserve privacy while letting in light, and circulate air, which both cools and prevents infection.

Read the blog.