Mission: Tenwek Hospital, Bomet, Kenya

Profile: Tenwek Hospital is a Christian mission hospital and community committed to excellence in compassionate health care, spiritual ministry and training for service.  Tenwek is a 300 bed hospital in rural southwestern Kenya.  Tenwek Hospital serves a population of 800,000 for primary healthcare and serves as a surgery referral center for the entire region of more than 8.5 million people.  The hospital started as a small clinic in the 1930s and the first doctor came in 1959.  Since that time, God has blessed the ministry of Tenwek hospital and today more than 11,000 inpatients and 85,000 outpatients are treated each year.  Tenwek has a new surgical and educational facility with five modern operating theatres.  More than 5,000 surgeries are performed each year and more than 1000 endoscopies along with a variety of other services.  Tenwek has an extensive medical library with internet services, laparoscopy, endoscopy, research in esophageal cancer, diagnostic radiology, laboratory, and physical therapy services.  Tenwek also has a well respected Nursing School and Chaplaincy Training Program.  Tenwek’s surgical faculty consists of three American board certified general surgeons, one Kenyan board certified general surgeon, plus many visiting general surgeons and specialists each year.  Currently, Tenwek serves as a training institution for Kenyan MO and CO interns as well as Family Practice residents.  Starting January 2008, Tenwek will begin training General Surgery residents in partnership with PAACS and COSECSA.  The motto at Tenwek is “We Treat, Jesus Heals” and that is evident in the lives of Tenwek patients.

Time Difference: +7 hours Daylight Savings Time (EST), USA; +8 hours Eastern Standard Time, USA

Travel: Tenwek is approximately 200 miles southwest of Nairobi.  Travel by car is challenging due to the condition of the roads.  AIM Air flights can be chartered into Bomet Kenya.

Location: Bomet province of Kenya, Southwest Kenya. 

Language: English is the national language and Swahili is the business language although there are more than 50 tribes in Kenya, each with their language.  The major ethnic groups in the Tenwek area are Kipsigis, Masaai, and Kisii.

Climate: Tenwek boasts a year round spring like climate because of the elevation of almost 7000 feet.  It is located across the Rift Valley near the Kenya Highlands in a beautiful area of rolling hills.  Daytime temperatures are in the 70s and nighttime temperatures are in the 50s.  

Housing: The housing consists of duplexes, houses or apartments at a nominal fee.

• Program Director:  Russell E. White, MD, FACS, MPH

• Assistant Program Director:  Carol D. Spears, MD, FACS, MBA

• Other General Surgical and Orthopedic Faculty: 

o   Dr. Zachariah Kasepoi, MBchB, MMED Surgery (Nairobi)

o   Dr. Michael Chupp, MD, FACS

o   Dr. Michael Ganey, MD (through June 2008)

• Other Surgical Faculty:

o   Dr. Caleb Maina – OB/GYN

o   Dr. Benjamin Roberts – MD, Ophthalmology and Retinal Surgeon

• Beds: 300 (60 surgical beds)

• Operating Rooms: 5 Major ORs and 1 OB OR
• Number of Residents: none, 2 to start January 2008

• Number of Major Cases in 2005-2006: 2,700 
• Began Training Residents: January, 2008

Russell E. White, MD, FACS, MPH

Carol D. Spears, MD, FACS, MBA