Bobbitt Supports Health Clinic Project in Congo and Tanzania

Aug. 20, 2013 - PRLog -- RALEIGH, N.C. (Aug. 20, 2013) – Bobbitt Design Build is hosting a work team from the Lake Tanganyika Floating Health Clinic (http://floatingclinic.org/) as they build a communications platform for the Africa-based clinic.
 
The Floating Health Clinic brings healthcare to isolated communities on Lake Tanganyika situated on the border of the Congo and Tanzania. Currently a network of land-based healthcare centers, the Floating Health Clinic works in the community to provide much-needed medical and surgical services, including emergency response and trauma care, specialty care, and medical transport/transfer. A significant component of the clinic’s mission is to implement training for local medical providers and visiting personnel.

Bobbitt is supporting this effort by providing office and work space for clinic tech workers Aaron Huslage and Vic Marks. Their task is to build computers and radios that will electronically connect the clinics and enable the floating clinic to provide better care to the people who live near the longest lake in the world.

“The work we’re doing in the space provided by Bobbitt will bring voice and data communications between healthcare facilities along the lake,” said Marks. “This will enable them to radio for emergency medical assistance, seek basic health-related guidance, and submit monthly reports as required by the Ministries of Health that formerly would have had to be delivered over a period of days, potentially delaying healthcare treatment while records were delivered by the healthcare worker.”

According to Marks, the initial communications deployment will take place in November, starting with the HF radios and small ruggedized servers that link the sites along the river and culminating with on-site training of healthcare workers. 

“In the past, reports on things as basic as the number and types of vaccinations delivered or disease incidence were recorded on paper and hand delivered to the Ministries of Health,” said Marks. “Now, healthcare workers will be able to file reports without interruption of health services provided to the community.

“We’re grateful to Bobbitt for their generosity in providing space that allows us to build software and test radio links that will contribute to increasing the standard of health and saving lives,” Marks said. 

For more information on the Lake Tanganyika Floating Health Clinic, visit http://floatingclinic.org/.  

About Bobbitt Design Build

Established in 1946, Bobbitt Design Build is the Carolinas’ largest design build contractor (http://www.bobbitt.com/) for commercial construction (http://www.bobbitt.com/), which provides control of site and architectural design, engineering, permitting and construction services under one roof. The employee-owned company has built more than 3,000 commercial buildings (http://www.bobbitt.com/) throughout the Carolinas.