Expanding access to quality healthcare for medically under-served communities in Latin America by deploying medical service teams and strengthening the capacity of in-country healthcare partner organizations

Countries Served
Dominican Republic
Ecuador
Guatemala

Headquarters
22 E 22nd Street
Indianapolis, IN 46202

Budget
$4,100,000

Problem


Of the 200 million people living in poverty in Latin America, an estimated 70% have no access to basic health care services. These 140 million people comprise one-third of the total population in the region. Of this demographic, an estimated 121 million individuals cannot afford any kind of health care and 107 million have no access to care because they live in remote areas.

Programs Offered


Timmy’s programs provide consistent access to quality healthcare by pairing short-term medical clinics staffed by volunteer medical teams with longer-term capacity building and support for local partners in the communities and surrounding areas Timmy serves.

Short-term Recurring Medical Clinics:
Volunteer medical service teams are recruited, trained and deployed at least every 2.5 months to each area Timmy serves. The intent is to provide consistent, sustained quality primary care to those in need. A normal medical team includes 4-6 physicians, 2 nurses, 2 pharmacists, and 15 students (including pre-med and medical students). Additionally, surgical teams have been added to Timmy’s range of activities in support of the areas it serves. Timmy also employs fulltime coordinators and community health workers who live and work in the communities Timmy serves, providing continuous presence and thereby significantly improving the continuity of care for individual patients, heightened effectiveness for the visiting medical teams, and, a vehicle through which Timmy can help improve the capacity of its local partners.

Quality of Care:
Participants in Timmy medical clinics only perform the procedures and perform the functions for which they are licensed and qualified in the United States. Because of the prevalence of expired medicines in the developing world, Timmy screens all medicine it provides and specially trains personnel to look for and address such problems during medical team visits.

Continuity of Care:
One of Timmy’s distinguishing characteristics is its emphasis on doing all it can to see that all patients who come to its clinics receive whatever care they need, even if it extends beyond the timing of a temporary clinic or beyond the specializations of the medical team members. Using its own, proprietary medical records system called “TimmyCare,” Timmy also collects medical records that are too often non-existent with poor patients in developing countries and without which continuity of care is not possible. Once fully developed and tested, this system might be made available to other nonprofits to increase their capacity to deliver and track quality medical care.

  • Patient Referral Systems – Patients in need of more advanced diagnostic testing, treatment, surgery, or other specialized care are referred to Timmy’s network of in-country healthcare partners. Timmy often subsidizes (and sometimes pays in full) the cost of this follow up care, helps facilitate transportation for rural patients, and assists with logistical and cultural challenges (including providing indigenous speaking translators, when necessary).
  • Health Records – Timmy creates, monitors, and analyzes patient histories to track patients over time, using its online “TimmyCare” medical records system. Volunteer medical professionals can review patient records, improving decision making and helping increase the quality of primary care provided. The system also permits follow-up with ongoing care for patients with chronic ailments, the tracking of referred patients, and the steady supply of medicines for those with continuing needs.
  • Strengthening Local Health Care Providers – Recognizing that true continuity of care depends on permanent, capable and adequately funded local health care providers, Timmy Global provides financial support, pharmaceutical drugs, training, and equipment to its local partners. It also co-locates its in-country personnel at the facilities of its local partners.

Historical Results


In fiscal year 2016-2017:

  • Deployed 40 medical service teams to medically under-served communities in Ecuador, Guatemala, and the Dominican Republic
  • Served 17,293 adult and children patients
  • Referred 2,112 patients to local health specialists for additional care
  • Raised $110,434 in direct funding for local healthcare partners and patients
  • Deployed 246 medical professionals and 596 general and student volunteers as part of Timmy medical service teams

Since 2004:

  • 195 medical teams deployed
  • 84,848 patients served
  • $1,566,120 in direct funding provided to local partners
  • $25,031,748 value of in-kind contributions (medicine and supplies) donated to Timmy Global Health partner organizations
  • 3,974 medical professional, general, and student volunteers deployed internationally

Use Of Funds


Timmy Global Health has been actively expanding the number of medical service teams it deploys, the number of communities it serves, the number of student chapters with which it is engaged, its capacity to track the quality and impact of its services, and, more recently, the range of services the medical teams perform. Contributions can help in each of these areas:

  • $200 enrolls one mother and child in a year-long malnutrition alleviation program managed by Timmy Global Health and its local partners
  • $850 funds a Community Health Worker for one year including their recruitment, training, and provision of a stipend. This local part-time staff helps the community take advantage of Timmy Global and partner clinic services, facilitates follow-up and referral care, and helps ensure patients understand and complete any prescribed long-term treatment plans.
  • $11,000 funds all direct costs (medicine, diagnostic tools, referral system, coordination) for one weeklong Recurring Short-Term Medical Clinic serving 450-650 patients. All other costs, averaging $163,000 (physician and volunteer time, commercial value of medicines) are provided as in-kind contributions. Approximately 40 clinics are scheduled for fiscal year 2017-2018.
  • $7,250 deploys the TimmyCare medical records system to one additional Timmy Global site enabling much-improved patient tracking, continuity of care, improved service provision, and program feedback.
  • $20,000 makes available an in-country physician for one year at a partner clinic to provide regular care to patients between visits by Timmy Global volunteer medical teams.
  • $35,000 funds the creation of a new local clinic partnership relationship, enabling Timmy Global to expand either within a large country currently being served or to an additional country.

Path to Credibility


Timmy Global Health has been a Focusing Philanthropy partner since 2013.

Focusing Philanthropy team members have made multiple visits to the Timmy Global Health headquarters in Indianapolis, Indiana to meet with the executive director, senior leadership, and members of the Board.

Focusing Philanthropy team members, including a member of the Board, have conducted three international diligence trips to visit Timmy Global Health medical teams (including both corporate and student brigades) and local partners in rural Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, and the Ecuadorian Amazon, providing an opportunity to observe the level and nature of activity; the interaction among medical team volunteers, local Timmy staff, and local partner personnel; and the patient response. Our team was very impressed with the magnitude of the patient population served, the respectful interactions between medical team members and patients, the degree of efficiency in the face of such large numbers, the obvious commitment to quality care by all medical and other Timmy-related participants, and the gratitude of those served.

Recipient of a grant from Chase Bank, awarded during the nationally televised American Giving Awards. Timmy Global Health was one of 25 national non-profits selected to participate in the program, and one of only five to receive a grant. Timmy was the national winner of the “Champions of Health and Wellness” category.

Recipient of support from the highly regarded Eli Lilly Foundation, an organization expert in medical care and the role of nonprofits in addressing under-served populations.

The Founders of Focusing Philanthropy personally donate to Timmy Global Health.

→ Read Dominican Republic Field Report

More Program Partners


Giving a voice to children alone in the foster care system.

Learn More

Empowering homeless and disadvantaged individuals to achieve self-sufficiency.

Learn More

Improving health, education, and opportunity through clean and safe drinking water.

Learn More

Empowering young people with the knowledge, skills, and resources to make healthy decisions.

Learn More

Providing one-on-one literacy tutoring to struggling readers in elementary school.

Learn More

Providing lasting solutions for the world’s most vulnerable refugees.

Learn More

Preparing young women with limited resources to be the first in their families to attend college.

Learn More

Transforming lives through sight-restoring surgery.

Learn More

Combating gender inequality and extreme poverty in urban slums.

Learn More

Increasing high school graduation rates of at-risk middle school students.

Learn More

Expanding access to consistent, quality healthcare to patients in underserved 
communities.

Learn More

Helping hard-working subsistence farm families gain food security and economic opportunity.

Learn More