Background
The clinic at the mission provides medical, dental and optical assistance, some kinds of surgery, but more complicated cases are taken to a government hospital in Mazatenango. The clinic seeks to educate people in health-related areas (preventative medicine). Also, they assist people with their ability to grow vegetables and the like - which are not a part of the "normal" diet, but can do a great deal to prevent illness - and work with people and communities to assure potable (non-polluted) water. At one point, a major task was to convince people that they should not have an open fire inside their house.
The mission clinic operation is made up of various projects that receive support from several donor agencies. These projects work together to provide excellent care to those who come to Clinica Maxeña and also those encountered during visits to the outlying communities. At the clinic in Santo Tomas we have a Guatemalan doctor, who is from the parish, who sees about 15-20 patients daily, five days each week; an assistant serves as a nurse-aid and health promoter, consults and provides care for patients that remain for short treatments or observations when the doctor is absent.
Laboratory
There is a Laboratory to assist the doctor and health promoters in diagnosis and treatment, and is staffed by a health promoter who is trained as a technician. The lab tech performs coprology, urinalysis, and tests for tuberculosis, malaria, typhoid fever, venereal diseases, hematology, and pregnancy. During 2000 the laboratory processed more than 5,200 tests.
Pharmacy
The Pharmacy sells a limited number of medicines according to the recommendations of the World Health Organization. The health promoters in the pharmacy have certification as community pharmacy technicians. Costs are kept as low as possible for the benefit of our needy population.
Dental Office
The Dental Office has periodic service to the mission community from groups of American dental practitioners who volunteer their time, service and supplies for a period of time at the Mission.
Prenatal Clinics
Prenatal Clinics are held every Wednesday with a midwife-educator, who also operates our clinic in Samayac. She and the midwives who serve the various communities of the area have constant refresher courses with the goal of reducing maternal-infant mortality.
The Medicinal Plant Project
The Medicinal Plant Project includes a demonstration garden with more than 100 varieties of plants that produces seeds and medicines. The coordinator examines patients and prescribes plant-based medicines. The pharmacy at the project produces and sells about 30 medications in the form of tincture, salve, shampoo, soap, and dried plants for teas or compresses. The team also trains promoters in the communities to grow their own plants for medication and treatment.
Community Health Project
The clinic is developing a Community Health Project which will enable communities to build a local health system whereby they can be fairly self sufficient with the option for referrals to the Clinica Maxeña and other health entities. The emphasis in the CHP is on women and children, including teaching and primary care on occasion.
Special Projects
Two very serious endemic health problems in the Boca Costa area in which the clinic is located are tuberculosis and trachoma. There are two projects to identify, treat, reduce or eliminate these diseases that Clinica Maxeña coordinates with the National Health Ministry and the National Committee against Blindness.
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