Sadie Creemer, who participated in the Fall 2024 SIT: Health and Human Rights in Kenya program, turned an eye-opening experience abroad into research that was presented at the 2025 Undergraduate Research Symposium. Learn more about Sadie's work below:
Ambulatory System in Kisumu, Kenya: Usage, Challenges and Evidence-Based Policy Recommendations
The public ambulance system, new since 2021, offers free ambulance usage for all people in Kisumu County. However, utilization rates are incredibly low for on-scene medical emergencies despite the high burden of disease and medical traumas in the region. The service is used primarily for inter-medical facility transfers and initiated by medical personnel rather than for on-scene response initiated by county residents. The research aims to answer the question: "What are the barriers to utilization of the ambulatory system in Kisumu County, Kenya for medical emergencies?" This research explores why utilization of the free service is low and what barriers exist in accessing the service through survey data from residents and focus-group discussions including ambulance users and community leaders and what the service is primarily used for in the status quo complied using facility data analysis. The output of the research provides policy recommendations for the County Department of Health including immediate interventions such as transitioning to a short-code toll free dispatch center phone number and using existing structures to share information about the services, to long-term interventions such as beginning education about emergency medical response in the primary school level.
"This research endeavor was an eye-opening experience into what I want my future work to entail. Getting to work hands-on with local residents, dispatch officers, and public health officials, allowed me to not only create policy recommendations that are being considered at the county government in Kisumu, Kenya, but also allowed me to learn about effective auditing and data collection. "