Salud Digna, Harvard University Case Study

CULIACAN, Mexico, Jan. 28, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- With the objective of offering efficient, fast healthcare service with a social focus and at rates everyone can afford, in 2003 the non-profit organization Salud Digna was founded, whose operations became the center of a case study by the School of Business at Harvard University.

"Don't tell me why not; tell me how to" (No me digas por que no; dime como si), a quote by organization founder Jesus Vizcarra Calderon, begins the document describing the project, which has to date taken care of more than one million patients and conducted more than two million consultations and lab exams at its 14 clinics scattered throughout Mexico.

Salud Digna currently is poised to begin operations in Los Angeles, California, where a team of professionals is conducting studies, securing permits and hiring staff so that its services can be available to the population this year.

Vizcarra Calderon said, "The objective of Salud Digna is to work together to improve the living standards of low income Mexicans through early prevention and detection of illnesses.

"Our organization mainly helps people with little or no access to the services we offer, and our primary goal is to create a generalized culture of preventive healthcare," said Vizcarra Calderon.

The Harvard case study maintains that Salud Digna's success is due, among many other factors, to the fact of it's being financially independent since 2007, despite its rates for services being a third of what private clinics charge.

Last year, Salud Digna took care of more than 2,500 patients daily at its 14 clinics located in 12 Mexican cities. By 2016 the organization is expected to have operations in other countries with the number of patients served estimated at more than 10 million.

In 2009, the state of Sinaloa, where most of the clinics are located, registered the highest prenatal survival rate nationwide, with a major contribution by Salud Digna, which saw 35,676 pregnant woman out of the total of 45,049 births recorded that year in the state.

• Salud Digna started out at the beginning of this decade as a management office of then federal representative Jesus Vizcarra Calderon that provided medical support for poor neighborhoods and districts. Once demand began to grow and people were unable to wait, the idea was developed to make diagnostic services available in one set place, which came to fruition in 2003, with Alma Avendano de Vizcarra as the first president. The current president of Salud Digna para Todos, IAP, is Lucero Vizcarra Avendano, daughter of the founder Jesus Vizcarra, who took over in 2007.

SOURCE Salud Digna