CIMA Hospital
Celebrates Fifth Anniversary
By Katherine Stanley
Tico Times Staff
kstanley@ticotimes.net

The Center for International Medicine (CIMA) Hospital in Escazú, a western San José suburb, is offering a week of special events for employees and former patients to celebrate the private facility's fifth anniversary – and its recent quality accreditation by the Ministry of Public Health.

CIMA is the first hospital in Costa Rica to receive the ministry's seal of approval through a lengthy certification process established in 1999, Alfonso Chapa, the hospital's general director, told The Tico Times yesterday. While all hospitals must receive a basic license from the ministry to operate, the quality accreditation “goes above and beyond,” he said.

Chapa spoke with pride about the way the hospital has grown during its five years of operation. It boasts Costa Rica 's only licensed helipad, which receives 8-9 landings per year, mostly from the northwestern province of Guanacaste ; a medical office building with 99 suites and 180 physicians representing 40 different specialties; and 54 inpatient beds, with room for a total of 110.

A second building with an additional 150 offices is planned, and negotiations to build a comprehensive oncology center on the third floor are under way.

The hospital is operated by the International Hospital Corporation (IHC), headquartered in Dallas , Texas , and affiliated with the Baylor University Medical Center there. Two other CIMA hospitals are operating in Mexico and Brazil .

“People are usually more confident to come here,” said pediatrician Ariel Simons, who cited low staff turnover, excellent training and short wait times as factors that encourage patient loyalty.

Simons and all other front-line service providers at CIMA are required to become fluent in English. Chapa said the hospital offers free English classes and salary bonuses to achieve a bilingual staff.

The week's celebratory events have included an ice cream social for the staff, a party for the approximately 50 children born at CIMA during its first year of operation, a helicopter landing and mock patient transfer to demonstrate the use of the helipad, and a visit from Baylor head Joel Allison.

According to Richard Feldman, director of operations for the hospital, CIMA plans to open the first private psychiatric facility in Central America on April 1.

“It hasn't been done before,” he said of the facility.

Government Contemplates
Reviving Cargo Trains

The Costa Rican government announced Tuesday it plans to initiate the process of reviving the railway cargo service, in hopes of diminishing air contamination and saving gasoline.

The project will be financed by the state, with the aim of running trains to the Pacific and the Caribbean coasts. Such lines ceased functioning in 1996 under the government of ex-President José María Figueres.

Randall Quirós, minister of Transport, told the press if cargo trains were to run, the number of trucks on the road would diminish, resulting in less deterioration of the roads.

“With cargo trains operating in the Caribbean , 2,700 tons of cargo would be off the road, and 700,000 tons in the Pacific,” Quirós said.

President Abel Pacheco highlighted the savings in gasoline and ecological damage a train affords.

“When they closed the railways this country lost a lot. We lost money, ecology, roads; we lost all around. It was the only country that had an electric train from coast to coast,” he said.

During the second half of this year, the government will attempt to repair the railway infrastructure, which has currently deteriorated during its nine years of disuse.

--EFE

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