The following guest post by Dr. Gunther L. Faber, CEO of The HealthStore Foundation^®, is part of Disruptive Women’s “The Value of Health: Creating Economic Security in the Developing World” series.

Context: Lack of Access to Quality Basic Healthcare:  The market for drugs and basic healthcare in sub-Saharan Africa is large and fragmented, with millions lacking adequate access to basic healthcare and low quality standards prevailing in many existing private and public facilities.  This leads to unacceptable statistics, including 2007 under-5 mortality rates of 12.1% in Kenya^[1] and of 18.1% in Rwanda.^[2] Furthermore, throughout the world 10 million children die each year, almost two out of three from a short list of easily preventable or treatable diseases and illnesses.^[3]

Approach:  Business Format Franchising: From SUBWAY, to ExxonMobil, to Marriott Hotels, the franchise business model has proven to be the most effective way to mass distribute goods and services where standards matter most.  The HealthStore Foundation^®–founded by an American entrepreneur and a Tanzanian pharmaceutical microbiologist—applies lessons learned from the franchise industry to increase access to high-quality essential drugs and basic healthcare through its Child and Family Wellness (“CFW”) franchise network.

CFW Franchisee Mrs. Credence Maina serving a Patient

A typical setting of a CFWclinic in rural Kenya

Empowering Female Nurses in Africa to Own Their Own Clinics: Since opening its first outlets in 2000, The HealthStore Foundation^® has developed a network of franchised medical clinics and drug shops now totaling 85 locations serving approximately 45,000 patients and customers per month in Kenya and Rwanda.  CFW franchisees are in business for themselves.  They create wealth for themselves and their families, and they create other jobs as well, such as by hiring local women to clean their clinics.  As the CFW network grows, hundreds more nurses will own their own clinics, building wealth for themselves and jobs in their communities, all the while improving conditions for economic development by reducing illness and death.

CFW Standards: CFW clinics and shops prevent, detect, and treat the short list of most common diseases that cause approximately 70% of illness and death in sub-Saharan Africa.  Local nurses and health workers own CFW outlets, operating as franchisees using HealthStore’s CFW branded business format franchise system.  The CFW system includes diagnostic and treatment guidelines, drug formularies, and operating procedures.  Each franchisee is contractually obligated to follow the CFW system; if they fail to comply, their franchisee rights are revoked.  This creates a powerful incentive for franchisees to maintain basic clinical and business standards across the CFW network.  In addition to the work they do inside the four walls of their stores, CFW franchisees also reach out to their communities conducting a range of health promotion activities including HIV/AIDS prevention, health screening of school children, and distributing health and hygiene products.

Results: In 2008, HealthStore’s network of 85 CFW outlets served over 500,000 people.

Vision: In the years ahead HealthStore aims to continuously improve its CFW franchise model and to expand it throughout Africa. HealthStore plans to grow its network in Rwanda to 60 clinics over the next three years, and is currently seeking funding to expand its operations to other countries in sub-Saharan Africa.  Its ultimate vision is a self-sustaining network of CFW clinics and shops throughout sub-Saharan Africa serving hundreds of millions of patients and customers each year with high quality healthcare services and medicines.

Learn More: Visit www.healthstore.org and watch “Health Care Franchise”, an Emmy-Award-Winning PBS Documentary.

^[2] This statistic from UNICEF:  http://www.unicef.org/infobycountry/rwanda_statistics.html (accessed 2009-11-11).

^[3] This statistic from WHO: http://www.who.int/pmnch/topics/child/childfacts/en/ (accessed 2009-06-05).

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 17th, 2009 at 8:51 am and is filed under Global Health. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.