Eva Perón Teaching Hospital, Argentina
The Eva Perón Teaching Hospital is a 120-bed public facility that services a large and economically disadvantaged population. The hospital has a history of excellence in digestive surgery, counting Professors Juan Miguel Acosta and Carlos Pelligrini among its former distinguished faculty members. Due to a struggling economy and a disastrous flood of the nearby Paraná River in 2001, the facility deteriorated and basic endoscopic services were discontinued. In 2002, Dr. Diego Murature applied for the Eva Peron Hospital to become a WGO Outreach Center, and in 2003, his application was successfully chosen by an international review committee.
Through the Outreach Program and with governmental and local parties, a wing of the hospital was remodeled for the new endoscopy unit. This new area includes an intake and processing area, the endoscopy room, a recovery area, and a combined endoscope-processing space and nurses' area. All construction work was done on a volunteer basis by local inhabitants.
In Septmeber 2003, the center was officially opened and an international faculty ran an inaugural course, consisting of lectures and hand –on demonstrations over two days.
In the 3 months following the opening of the Endoscopy Unit, 129 upper endoscopies, 60 colonoscopies and sigmoidoscopies, and 21 ERCPs were performed for a wide variety of diagnostic and therapeutic indications.
