Concept
Following a franchise business model that combines ownership with proven operating, marketing, and distribution standards, MicroClinic empowers community health nurses to own and grow their own MicroClinic.

Each MicroClinic offers standardized operating practices and consistent levels of quality and care, building community acceptance and awareness while creating interest and demand for additional MicroClinics to serve new communities.

Micro-finance opportunities finance MicroClinic capital expenditures, including clinic construction, equipment, supplies, and franchise fee. To cover operating expenses, health care partnerships offer complete insurance coverage for the poor.

Because MicroClinic focuses on a short list of preventable diseases that account for 70% of childhood illnesses and deaths in Sub-Sahara Africa, it develops domain expertise for its nurse/franchisees and provides top quality service to those at the base of the pyramid.

The initial roll out of our clinics will be in Ghana and Uganda.The next phase of growth,will include Sudan,DRC and Liberia.

Key Innovations

MicroClinic offers West Africa key innovations in health care. They include:

• Providing medical care via skilled nurses with a community health background.
• Targeting top four rural diseases and providing follow-up care for TB/HIV patients.
• Delivery channels for additional health products (e.g. condoms, bed-nets).
• Complete reimbursement for poor patients.
• Empowering women (most nurses in Ghana and other African countries are women).
• Building a community of local entrepreneurs.

Methodology
MicroClinic methodology incorporates into one system important interventions that have been shown to have some effect on public health systems:

.Training
.Oversight
.Performance-Based Incentives
.Certification
.External Payment Scheme
.Ongoing Support
.Monitoring

Implementation
MicroClinic enables community-based, entrepreneurial nurse/franchisees to own and operate their own businesses while providing essential basic health services to rural communities. To support its franchisees and insure a culture of consistency, MicroClinic provides business consulting and disease protocol through initial and on-going training sessions, field visits, meetings, and regular communications. The MicroClinic focus is:

1. Wellness, not sickness.
2. Prevention, not just treatment of ailments.
3. Responsiveness to public health needs.

MicroClinic extends the principles of social franchising with existing partnerships with the Ghanaian Health Ministry, Africa Medical Partners, University of St.Thomas, and reliable pharma providers.

Impact:
1. We utilize private sector models to improve public health outcomes.

2. We improve access to high quality essential health services in many rural areas and underserved populations.

3. We maintain consistent clinical care and quality standards necessary for effective treatment.

4. We minimize congestion at dispensaries, health centers and hospital by providing early case management of the top 5 preventable, curable diseases which account for 70% of the case burden.

5. We help reverse nurse migration to other countries, by creating community-based nurse entrepreneurs with income and assets.

6. We create sustainable economic growth and employment in the rural areas.