Access to safe surgery is an essential component of effective cleft care for children suffering from cleft lip and palate congenital anomalies in the developing world. However, there are gaps in access to safe surgical and anesthesia care in many low and middle income countries, due to the lack of trained professionals, hospital infrastructure and systems required to support safe surgery.
“Our Patient Safety Commitment is focused on our work to support local in-country partners to enable them to perform safe, high-quality surgeries. Every patient who receives surgery through our Smile Train model is treated under our rigorous Safety and Quality protocols that address essential elements of perioperative care. Through this Commitment, Smile Train will work with 13 developing world hospital facilities to support safe surgery through targeted training, and the adoption of Smile Train’s essential policies and protocols for cleft treatment,” said Schaefer.
“We expect that 1,500 surgeries will be provided to children with cleft lip and palate at these facilities during the commitment. These children will receive quality care that they previously would not have had access to without Smile Train’s partnership,” Schaefer said of the commitment.
All patients impacted through this partnership will have their life-changing surgery carefully tracked through Smile Train’s online patient medical records database, Smile Train Express, which has been used in more than 85 countries around the world.
