Jeff Daniels looks at an emergency service that knows no bounds to its possibilities.
Like many an African country, Botswana has a few large-ish urban centres where a sizeable but minority proportion of the population live, and then lots of wide open spaces where the remainder of the two million inhabitants are to be found (if you look hard enough—Botswana still has around 10,000 Bushmen living a nomadic life, much as they have for centuries).
In economic terms, the country has achieved something of a miracle since gaining independence in 1966 when it had to find its way on a GDP of less than $100 per head. These days, the figure is up over $14,000, and some figures suggest that the country has the fourth highest purchasing power parity in Africa.
Nevertheless, it’s still a relatively poor country; and there is a lot of land to be serviced, much of it comprising the Kalahari Desert. As such, it’s a country and an economy where innovative solutions often have to be found. Such a case in point is the way that emergency medical services are provided, the biggest single provider being MRI Botswana.
Medical Rescue International, to give the company its full former name, made corporate history as the first medical assistance company in the world to go public when it listed on the Botswana Stock Exchange in September 1998. MRI started operations in 1992 and over the intervening 19 years has earned the trust of the diplomatic corps, corporate organisations, medical aid schemes/societies and insurance groups, which form the bulk of its clientele.
These days, the distinctive brightly-coloured vehicles can be seen everywhere in the country, from the remotest mining operation to downtown Gaborone. In 2009, MRI launched its own emergency response number, 992, giving free access from anywhere in the country. A call to this number opens the gateway for the many services of MRI via a Gaborone call centre manned 24 hours a day, every day of the year by a team of trained nurses, paramedics and call centre agents, all backed up by at least one fully qualified medical doctor.
From here, the most appropriate of MRI’s fleet of rapid response vehicles and ambulances—even its own dedicated air ambulance or the hired helicopters it can call upon—are mobilised in that narrow window of time which swings the balance in favour of recovery. Inside, the vehicles are kitted out with modern medical equipment suitable for emergencies, whether they involve neonates, paediatrics or adults.
MRI provides emergency medical evacuation throughout the country via a network of skilled paramedics, emergency doctors, nurses and emergency medical dispatchers—all capable of delivering life-saving pre-hospital care. The most common outcome requires road evacuation and for this, MRI has bases in Gaborone, Palapye, Francistown and Maun, where a number of 4x4 Land Rover ambulances can cope with terrain that ranges from thorn bush scrub to swamps.
But it’s not all ambulances and emergencies: MRI also takes responsibility for providing on-site medical clinics particularly catering for the many mining and prospecting activities to be found in the remote corners of the country. Therefore, MRI has developed an on-site clinic management service tailor-made for the Botswanan environment and specific to each client ensuring that employees, far from home, can be evacuated in the case of an emergency but that they always have access to healthcare.
Of course, this is a cost to those mining companies but it does provide reassurance to employees and with that, an incentive to work on the project. By relinquishing the responsibility to MRI, mine operators can get on with their core business safe in the knowledge that MRI’s extensive experience makes it fully prepared for the typical injuries and illnesses that unfortunately go with the territory. Its easy procurement of medical equipment and consumables reduces operational costs on the one hand and provides peace of mind to all concerned on the other.
But these days MRI is also trying to encourage employers to be more proactive than reactive. It argues—quite correctly—that a stressful working environment takes its toll on the overall health and wellbeing of staff members on the front lines. Sustained pressure and long hours make them more susceptible to nicotine and alcohol and also reduces the free time that they have for healthy eating and exercise.
MRI is therefore promoting its Wellness Programmes, which are aimed at improving employees’ health, motivation and performance as a means of reducing lost productivity through absenteeism and medical attention. The aim is to prevent disease by addressing the seven dimensions that men and women need in order to choose a more balanced and healthy lifestyle: social, emotional, environmental, spiritual, career, intellectual and physical health.
As expected, those companies that have incorporated wellness programmes report better levels of motivation in the workplace, a more harmonious working environment, faster completion of complex tasks and reduced levels of sick leave. To counter the common objection that companies cannot spare the time to set such a programme up, MRI takes its services to the client, establishing a wellness centre at work so that it is easy for staff to take a range of simple but valuable medical tests that are key health indicators, such as blood pressure, pulse, respiration, blood sugar, oxygen saturation, weight, heart function and activity (ECG) and body mass index.
Another important aspect of the work MRI does is to provide some level of medical training to the wider community. For the public at large there are basic pre-hospital emergency treatments should friends or family need life support, resuscitation or first aid. But MRI’s teams are even equipped to give medical professionals practical coaching on more advanced levels of emergency treatment.
In fact, having established the brand as a super-reliable source of service, the MRI name is now being spun off into all manner of imaginative services. Where once it was all medical, MRI now performs an emergency service for cars and other vehicles, carrying out repairs or towing-in for more complex problems. Got a burst water pipe? Now, the name to call for emergency plumbing services is MRI.
That’s innovation, Botswana-style. www.mri.co.bw
