A Hot Day for Business

What a day! We had back-to-back meetings this afternoon that made all the research, all the reaching out, all the politics, all the posturing worth the time and effort that’s been invested.

The first was with a foundation for a financial institution, i.e., a bank, that has turned the banking model upside down here in Africa. In the interest of teaching Africans to trust and use banks, this institution will open an account for no fee; take every deposit regardless of size, even as little as 200 CFA (African Francs), which is the equivalent of about 40 cents; and charge nothing for ordinary transactions like deposits and withdrawals. They are interested in the Hospital of Hope because they believe in affordability. Just as we want to make healthcare affordable, they are doing the same with banking. Just as they want to educate their customers about banking, we want to educate our patients about their own healthcare.

Add to our amazement that this financial services group has even created an innovative health insurance program, that offers coverage to anyone who can afford 250 CFAs per month. That works out to about 60 cents. It covers 70 percent of any hospitalization costs. [OK, this is making the US healthcare reform look worse and worse to me…and it also makes the financial services industry look pretty bad too…don’t ya think?]

Our second meeting was with a health economist at the World Bank, who immediately saw and understood what we want to accomplish by opening up healthcare to a population is too remote from the facilities in Dakar and could never afford the services that are available. Engaged completely from the beginning of our presentation, he immediately began to identify resources that could help us strengthen the business analysis and model of the project. As with the financial services company, the energy around the project was kindled by the alignment of our values…a belief that everyone should have high quality healthcare…that good quality can be delivered affordably...that the business model for healthcare delivery can be sustainable.

We have a lot of work to do as follow-up from both meetings. So do they. But follow-up is a good thing, an indication of seriousness and commitment to move forward.

A meeting like minds and like hearts. It was a very good day.