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Where does the name "Nazounki" come from ?
"It was the first name of my father. He devoted his life to promoting education and health in rural villages and contributed to the decline of certain practices such as facial scars. Choosing his name is a sign of respect to what he did. "
Why did you create Nazounki?
"In order to respond to a real need which, as a doctor, I could not avoid. Before Nazounki was created, patients in our country were sent to hospitals in Europe and the USA in complete anonymity. Isolated and sometimes not speaking the language, they sometimes waited for two weeks before their disease was identified and they were sent to the right services and supported by the right specialist. Not to mention the daily cost of a stay in a hospital, time could have serious consequences on their health. Besides, my colleagues in Africa have taken the habit to contact me every time one of their patients came in Europe. Surgeon and fully in duty myself, I could not answer all their requests. So one day, I chose to structure this activity by creating a company for patients who wished to be accompanied by professionals, responsible for their care and recovery. "
What is Nazounki’s philosophy ?
“The interest of the patient comes before all other considerations. For example, we are sometimes obliged to refuse a patient : either because of the medical regulations of the host country or simply because we think that our Professors will not be able to give enough satisfactory improvement. Even so, we make it our duty to inform the patient as soon as possible, therefore avoiding him from nourishing useless hopes or engaging unnecessary expense.” savings we are going to make for him. Therefore, the aim is not to lower the quality of the medical care but to have a very tight planning to lower the duration of the stay abroad.
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How do you manage cost / quality ?
We state from the fact that our patients should be "priority" patients, because they come from far, and it costs them more than citizens in the country. Therefore we select only the greatest specialists and Professor, as well as the best equipped health centre. We don’t bargain with the Specialists because we want them to deliver the best cares to our patients ; what we are weary of, is the time spent by the patient abroad. The less he spends time abroad, the more savings we are going to make for him. Therefore, the aim is not to lower the quality of the medical care but to have a very tight planning to lower the duration of the stay abroad.
How do you control medical expense ?
Despite this requirement for high-level medical care, we ensure that the prices charged to you are not overwhelmed.
We make sure that the fares are justified and usual. We keep in touch with the financial departments in charge of paying for your medical care and alert them whenever there are complications in your disease requiring extra costs. Finally, we invite our customers, financial services once a year to check with them all the invoices.
After 7 years of experience, do you consider Nazounki as a success story ?
"Yes, we can say that without sounding too much pretentious ! What I am proud of is that we have accompanied more than 3000 patients and that our work is highly appreciated and recognised by our patients and by most embassies in Africa and the Middle East.
However, our task is far from being complete… My challenge is to find means to contribute to improve the quality of medical care in our countries themselves, not to increase the number of patients having to go abroad. For example, we organize trainings and workshops for doctors and specialists to share their knowledge worldwide and we are currently working with Health Ministries of some countries to implement SAGESSE Medical…
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