Our goal is to turn San Raymundo’s Hospital into a facility that anyone from around the world would be comfortable working in
Our Hygiene Clinic
Our hygiene clinic was completed in 2020 at a cost over over $100,000 made possible in part due to extensive fundraising efforts by Dr. T. Bob Davis. T Bob has led dental student focused mission trips for over 40 years to various countries in Central America. There are over 20 dental units and chairs that can be used to provide dental care at once. T Bob’s team usually sees 600-800 children the week before our trip and provides cleanings, oral hygiene instructions, and limited restorative work based on the child’s ability to cooperate for treatment. They then “refer” any children with extensive decay or inability to cooperate to our team who travels the week after them for surgical cases. The hygiene clinic is fairly complete with minimal needs at this time. It would be nice to tile the area and perhaps find a more comfortable chair solution for the providers (rolling wheels would be amazing) and patients (a more contoured and cushioned chair).
Our Surgery Suite
We have 3 anesthesia machines and 3 “bays” that we can operate out of. There is a private OR as well so eventually we could have 4 providers working at once. Everything is serviceable, but very old and in need of major updates (anesthesia machines, monitors, lighting, operating beds, mayo stands, chipped flooring, transport beds, dental equipment, etc). You can see our improvement needs below.
Hospital Facility Goals
Our goal is to provide a comfortable operating environment for any surgical specialty to walk into. This will likely be a never ending goal, but one that is worthwhile if we can improve our facility each year we visit. This hospital is not only used for dental surgeries but also has been used for general surgery (hernia repairs, gallbladder removals), OBGYN (hysterectomies) and plastics (Cleft Lip and Palate Repair). They run a pharmacy from time to time and have general wellness clinics as well.
Dental Specific Future Hopes and Dreams
Equip and staff a facility capable of providing 80 dental surgery cases over 4 days.
Expand our prevention program by providing oral hygiene instructions/dietary counseling and toothbrushes/toothpaste for every child in the San Raymundo area.
Establish an orthodontic clinic to help correct the malocclusion caused by the severe decay/loss of teeth many children experience here.
Expand our services to include adult dental clinics (including acquiring a CAD-CAM milling machine to fabricate crowns/bridges in 1 hour).
Cultivate a closer working relationship with the faculty and students of Universidad Francisco Marroquin to enable a pediatric dental rotation outreach that would enable more frequent routine visits for each child.
Ultimately, employ full time local dental missionaries to provide dental services year round. This would make the most use of our equipment and supplies.
Dreamlist Makes it Easy
Click below to access our “Dreamlist” and purchase supplies and equipment for our Mission Trips. It’s a work in progress, but might give you some ideas.
Dental Needs
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Dental Delivery Units (Purchased 2025!)
Our current units cost a few hundred dollars and serve us well enough. However, they slow us down and add about 25-50% time to each case due to the low power. Purchasing 3 of these stand alone units will provide us with all of the power we could need as well as provide adequate suction which we currently do not have. These are the most expensive items we need. We will receive a non-profit discount though.
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Dental Storage Racks and Containers
We have been given a locked room to store our dental supplies and equipment in. The area is dusty and supplies need covering and an easy way to transport them from upstairs down the ramp into the surgical suite. These racks and covered tubs would provide us with storage for our supplies throughout the year. We aim to keep enough supplies for 100 OR cases each year as some items are best bought in bulk and left behind rather than paying the airline baggage fee to transport back and forth each year.
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Dental Equipment
Smaller dental equipment (curing lights, triturators, handpieces, etc) are currently brought in each year. This is probably the best use of finances, but as we grow we would like to establish a fully equipped dental clinic staffed by a local missionary dentist for year round use.
Anesthesia Needs
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Anesthesia Monitors (Donated 2025!)
Thank you Longview Regional Medical Center for donating the units. These 4 monitors and anesthesia machines would cost over $100,000 to purchase new. Thank you Refuge International for allowing our mission trip to use them during our week in San Raymundo.
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Recovery Room Monitors
It takes 15-30 minutes for someone to “wake up” from anesthesia. During this time they need to be monitored for their safety. New monitors cost around $1,000-$2,000. We can definitely function with used/refurbished monitors or donated ones! We’d like pulse-oximetry, blood pressure, and ECG lead capabilities.
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Anesthesia Machine (Donated 2025!)
Thank you Longview Regional Medical Center for donating the units. These 4 monitors and anesthesia machines would cost over $100,000 to purchase new. Thank you Refuge International for allowing our mission trip to use them during our week in San Raymundo.
Facility Needs
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Water Filtration System
We currently have to truck in hundreds of gallons of water for our mission trips. Adding a water filtration system for the hospital and lodging/kitchen area would prevent that need. Are you able to help? Contact us below and let us know if you’d like to finance the filtration system or if you have expertise in the field.
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Electrical Rewiring
Bringing the hospital wiring up to US standards would be a major undertaking, but one that would be worthwhile since power outages are common and we have sensitive medical equipment in use. Solar power? Battery backups? Large enough generators to run the entire hospital at once? The needs are immense. Are you able to help? Contact us below and let us know if you’d like to finance the renovation or if you have expertise in the field.
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General Construction
The surgery beds are very heavy and have cracked the porcelain tile in several places, redoing the tile work, freshening up the paint, patching some chipped concrete, replacing bent wooden shelves, etc. Are you able to help? Contact us below.
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Paving the facility
Currently, the facility driveway is mostly dirt with some crushed up rock. This makes it difficult to keep the hospital and kitchen areas clean. Paving the facility would allow less time to be spent washing floors and wiping down supplies. We would hire local workers to pave the driveway to help support the local economy.