International Services

Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt not only cares for children at home but in countries around the world. Our international outreach mission includes sending our specialists on international medical mission trips twice a year, as well as identifying patients who will be brought to Monroe Carell for more extensive services.

Guatemala has among the worst performances in the world in child growth attainment. Fourty-four percent of all children under age five experience stunted growth, due to lack of nutrition.

There is also a very high ratio of children to adults as a result of the country's 36-year civil war that ended in 1996. The war resulted in 100,000 deaths and 1 million refugees.

• 50 percent of the population in Guatemala is under 18.
• 42.6 percent of the population is between 0 and 14 years old.
• 75 percent of the population live below the poverty line.
• 16 percent live in extreme poverty.
• 59 percent lack access to any health care services.

The Shalom Foundation is a faith-based 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that provides life-changing medical and surgical care to impoverished children in Guatemala. Shalom Foundation opened the Moore Pediatric Surgery Center in Guatemala City in February 2011, a facility supported in part by Children’s Hospital. Volunteer medical mission teams from various U.S. children’s hospitals, including Vanderbilt, use this space for collaboration with local medical specialists to provide health, healing and hope to children and their families.

Since 2005, Monroe Carell has sponsored 25 one-week pediatric surgical trips to Guatemala City to provide surgical care to children who are in desperate need. Each trip has involved one of four pediatric surgical specialties: ENT, Ophthalmology, Orthopaedics and Urology. Surgical mission trips typically happen twice per year in collaboration with the Shalom Foundation. During our mission trips, our teams have performed over 1,000 surgeries. Each surgical trip includes 15 to 17 Vanderbilt faculty and staff members and provides a unique opportunity to serve children in need.

The International Leadership Committee has established a policy for the submission and approval process of potential recipients of international charity care. One to two international charity care cases are approved each fiscal year. Since 2008, 20 children (representing China, Iraq, Guatemala, Honduras, Liberia and Uganda) have been recipients of international charity care.

To qualify for approval, patient must meet these strict criteria

• Live in a medically underserved area of the world, where the specialized medical care needed is not available
• Must be collectively considered "repairable" with a good, long-term prognosis by physicians serving on the International Leadership Committee
• Must be able to recover in home-country without extensive or complicated technological follow-up care
• Minimal range of risk for surgical care and anesthesia
• Must have local housing in place not provided or paid for by Children’s Hospital
• Has transportation means provided by sponsoring agency or international referral source
• Sponsoring physician and/or agency shall provide $5,000 stipend to support Children’s Hospital. Stipend is subject to selective waiver by the International Leadership Committee.

How to submit for international charity care

• Referring body must complete an International Patient Charity Request Form (download below)
• Email the completed form to Jenni Logsdon and Dr. Douglass Clayton.
• The International Committee will review cases at quarterly meetings and base collective decision on the previously outlined criteria.
• The committee’s decision will be communicated to the sponsor agency and champion physician.
• If approved, appropriate contact will commence.