Soddo Christian Hospital - Infrastructure Assessment, Wolaita, Ethiopia

Roughly 330km south of Ethiopia's Capital Addis Ababa, the town of Wolaita Sodo sits at the edge of the Great Rift Valley in the midst of the Wolaitta people. The town of Sodo is the administrative center of the Wolaita Zone, and is a center of major health and education institutions in Ethiopia. Opened in 2005, Soddo Hospital is a big reason for that. Soddo Hospital provides medical services through family medicine, general and orthopedic surgery, OB/GYN, pediatrics, and several other areas. The hospital also hosts one of Africa's 17 surgical training programs through PAACS (Pan-African Academy of Christian Surgeons), training and raising up the next generation of Ethiopian surgeons.

As the town of Sodo and surrounding regions grow in population, Soddo Hospital's number and quality of services has grown to match the needs of the community. This growing service has put continued strain on the electrical, civil, and medical gas infrastructure.

EMI has enjoyed a relationship with Soddo Hospital since 2016 over the course of multiple involvements, and has been invited back to assess the infrastructure that helps keep the hospital functional.

Project Scope

Our team's effort will be focused on documenting, evaluating, and analysing existing infrastructure at Soddo's hospital, and providing recommendations that are critical prior to further expansion.

ELECTRICAL

• Documentation of major distribution circuits, wire sizes and length, circuit breaker sizes, etc.
• Load study, including power monitoring for load flow documentation, thermography, and current measruements for problem identification
• Identification of critical issues (overloaded circuits, voltage drop issues, loads vulnerable to stabilized power), and documentation of overloaded generator profile and major contributing loads
• Key recommendations to be implemented prior to further hospital development

CIVIL

• Documentation of existing conditions for water (source, storage, distribution, treatment) and wastewater (collection, treatment, and disposal)
• Determination of existing & remaining capacity of major water and wastewater infrastructure (water source, water treatment, storage, wastewater treatment)
• Water quality testing to identify any water quality concerns
• Identification of critical issues with recommendations to be implemented prior to further hospital development.

MEDICAL GAS

• Documentation of existing conditions as it relates to medical gas
• Determination of existing & remaining capacity of major medical gas equipment
• Identification of critical issues relating to the supply of various medical gases, demand of station outlets of supply, and ongoing concerns from staff.
• Providing key recommendations that may be implemented prior to further hospital development

Needs