The Centro Cristiano de Servicios Medicos Dr. Elias Santana in Los Alcarrizos is celebrating its 20 years of public service. The clinic is best known for his ophthalmology services and is popularly referred to as the Hospital de los Americanos. Yesterday, physicians saw patient number two million, 73-year old Isabel de la Rosa, who for the occasion will receive a free cataract operation. A cataract operation normally costs around RD$8,500 at the clinic, several times less than what private hospitals charge.
As reported in the Listin Diario, the hospital has carried out 60,000 surgeries since its foundation. The hospital is directed by its founders, Christian missionaries William and Janice Hunter and offers ophthalmology and general practice. Juan Francisco Batlle is the director of the ophthalmology unit. He said that the hospital attends around 500 persons almost every day and carries out 85 surgeries every week. Batlle said that in 1995 in coordination with the Lions Club a survey was carried out and it was detected that there were 33,000 blind people in the Dominican Republic. Half had gone blind because they could not afford cataract surgery.