Retreat Community Health Centre
The MIT team developed and tested a system for managing folders and prescriptions in the pharmacy that was inspired by the bins that staff used to manage medication supplies.
2014 | Cape Town, South Africa Our second project with Retreat focused on its pharmacy, where we aimed to help streamline operations to improve the delivery of essential medicine to its patients. The first step was an extensive study tracking the entire process, from patient arrival to dispensing. The team then pinpointed specific opportunities to explore in depth and generated a set of practical ideas they tested on site.
Some patients waited all day for the medicines they needed, and in some cases had to return a second day. Many had to miss a day of work to collect a routine refill, which could hamper their ability to adhere to needed treatment.
After two weeks working shoulder-to-shoulder in the pharmacy, the students had developed close relationships with the staff, and had come to appreciate the complexity and challenges of striving to serve hundreds of patients every day despite limited infrastructure and technology.