The process of Opportunity Evaluation begins months before a candidate is actually selected. Our research on areas of interest include research of needs in various areas of the world. Our team communicates with the local government Ministry of Health, other doctors, medical organizations, NGOs and agencies with active projects in the area. We seek to identify knowledgeable individuals with local knowledge and experience in the area to eliminate sites that will not meet the trip criteria. We also seek to communicate with other medical teams that have made prior trips to the region. The region is then followed up with a trip qualification visit which typically in May / June with an in depth, on site pre-trip inspection and hospital selection process. The qualification of the hospital is based upon a written qualification provided by SOS to the Ministry of Health and other medical organizations with knowledge of the region. We have found that our efforts to work with a carefully qualified recipient organization will ensure appropriate delivery and use of the donated medical relief. The Ministry will review their hospitals that meet the criteria and requirements provided by Sustainable Outreach Solutions and create a list of potential hospitals. The Pre-Trip Qualification Team travels to the region typically for 5 to 7 days to visit the hospitals, inspect the surgical suites, pre-op and post-op care areas and review the patient case load. The local hospitals will typically present their capabilities, history and recommendations to the screening committee. At the same time, the screening committee will review the local hotels and restaurants for capabilities and capacity. Each hospital will have a list of requested or recommended equipment needs, medical supplies needed and expected patient case load expectation. This is developed along with the agreement of the local hospital as they will be responsible for pre-screening the patients.

Each hospital to be visited has already been evaluated, scored and a recommendation prepared for the Executive Committee. The Pre-Trip Qualification Team will also provide a budget estimate including the cost of travel, hotels, meals and transportation of materials. The PTQT will also include a list of requested equipment and medical supplies to be donated to the hospital. The Trip Plan will also include recommended travel dates and trip duration avoiding local holidays and unfavorable weather which impacts travel for the team and patients.

The Executive Committee will then review the recommendations and make a final decision for the hospital, number of surgical teams (typically 2 to 4 teams), recommended leaders and determine a budget for the trip.

The Trip Committee, composed of a Director or Lead Doctor/Engineer and other recommended leaders with a variety of skills will complete the Trip Plan. The Trip Plan will include travel dates, travel arrangements, document requirements, staffing plan, number of people allowed, specialties or skills required for the case load, equipment needs, donations needed, packaging and transportation of the equipment and medical supplies. The volunteers typically pay a portion of their own expenses to travel to the country. The volunteer list selected from volunteer medical and engineering professionals that are qualified and licensed in their individual professions is reviewed and the first round of invitations is sent to the people that have requested consideration. The list of personnel is developed based upon the availability of the staffing with paid time off, expense cost and number of available slots with specific qualifications. The SOS organization will provide a limited number of scholarships for some mission critical personnel considered necessary to the mission but otherwise would not be able to attend due to cost. The majority of the attendees are responsible for their own airfare ($400 – $1,200) as part of their personal or corporate commitment. Additionally, 30 or more companies and individuals have contributed money, supplies and medical equipment to the efforts.

The trips in the past have been focused on areas within South and Central America. The recent increase in transportation costs and the feed back from members have created some new opportunities.

In addition to the Central and South America trips, the Executive Committee has had Needs Assessment teams visiting other countries to assess the health needs and determine the appropriate medical response from SOS.

The key to any successful trip is a strong leadership team and a supporting organization within the country and hospital. It is important that the members have a passion for providing service to the selected country. Team sizes vary as a function of trip costs, needs, available space in the facility and number of volunteers that have expressed interest.

The trips are being evaluated to provide three basic types of medical service opportunities.

SHORT TRIPS – 3 to 4 days

Costs: $5,000 – $8,000 / trip – driving accessible

1 or 2 surgical teams, 2 or 3 clinicians

10 to 18 people

We are evaluating locations closer to the Scottsdale/Phoenix metropolitan area that can be performed by a team of medical professional that can drive to the location. These trips are designed to have a 2 to 3 days of treatment. For example, a team may drive to a facility on Thursday evening, arriving around 10 pm and perform surgical /clinical treatments on Friday / Saturday and part of Sunday. The team would return home on Sunday afternoon at a reasonable hour. The shorter trips are more affordable for some of the medical professional that don’t have the financial ability to provide their own airfare and don’t have the ability to spend a week out of the country, typically without pay, or have limited family support to take care of their children on the longer trips. An additional advantage of these trips is that more medical equipment can be transported in vehicles and trailers at a low cost that air transport which limits the amount, size and weight of what we can transport.

WEEK LONG TRIPS – 7 to 9 days

Costs: $25,000 to $35,000 / trip

3 to 5 surgical teams, 2 or 4 clinicians

25 to 40 people

These trips are the historically successful trip model from past efforts in South and Central America. The team departs on Saturday, usually requiring a full day of travel. The team arrives in country on Saturday evening and prepares for a Sunday afternoon clinic and surgical teams to work. This allows the team time on Sunday morning to evaluate the cases presented by the local hospital administration. The teams, typically 3 to 5 surgical specialties, work on 5 to 8 cases per day each and work on Sunday through Saturday morning. We typically return to the major metropolitan area for a final night out before returning to Arizona on Sunday at a reasonable hour. Medical supplies that have been donated are transported as personal luggage in bins weighing 50 pounds with the amount of supplies delivered to the local medical facility being limited to the number of people on the trip. Large medical equipment can not be transported and alternative transportation must be arranged ahead of time. On past trips, approximately 100 surgeries can be performed and over 1,000 people can be seen in the clinic.

TWO WEEK TRIPS – 12 to 14 days

$40,000 – $65,000 / trip

3 to 5 surgical teams, 2 or 4 clinicians

25 to 40 people

The longer trips would be overseas typically to places like Africa, Asia, Central Europe or South America which requires several travel days. The expenses are much higher for transportation and the travel time is typically two days to get to the medical facility. The combination of higher expense and longer travel time reduce the number of volunteers that can be taken and can afford the trip personally. The needs are great in some of these areas and a small team of 6 to 8 people can provide a substantial impact. Emphasis on these trips is training and provisioning of medical supplies. There is a limited amount of time available for surgeries so the main concept is to train the local medical teams in procedures and processes to improve their performance. Additionally, we work with the local government health agencies, NGOs and partners to provide and transport medical supplies that are appropriate for the local area.

Our engineering efforts are focused on two main areas, water and solar power. Clean water is a basic need for human beings. When people, especially children, have access to clean water, they live healthier and more productive lives. However, at least 3,000 children die each day from diseases caused by unsafe water, which is what motivates our members to build wells, install water purification systems, rainwater harvesting systems, and teach community members how to operate, maintain and financially manage the new water infrastructure.

While very few people die of thirst, millions die from preventable waterborne diseases, providing the impetus for our members to also improve sanitation facilities in undeveloped countries. While not a flashy as water wells and water systems, our members also work with villages in providing toilets and latrines that flush into a sewer or safe enclosure. Part of the hygiene program is also education programs to promote hand-washing and other good hygiene habits.

Examples of our existing programs are the development of a solar powered water distribution systems in Nicaragua using students and professors at Northern Arizona University Geology and Engineering department to provide a regional understanding of water sources and the impact of diversion of the water to public water distribution on the rain forest. Also the engineering department is working on the technical design for the solar power system, water storage tank design and the pumping / distribution system for the village of 3,000 people. We are working with a local NGO (AVODEC) and Esperanca on this program which involves five water projects.

In Mexico, we are starting on the Needs Assessment phase of a water program for a village of 30,000. The issues for the community are water quality, contamination with metals from nearby mines and water filtration. We are partnering with the City of Scottsdale Sister Cities and NAU for this project.