In the summer of 2015, SAMA Donated a new ultrasound system to the Pediatrics Department of the Health Center in Vrbas. This donation was intended to enable doctors to do hip screenings on newborn babies. Below is an update provided by Dr. Jelena Lalatović in January 2018:

Over the last 2 years, the Pediatrics Department did almost 2000 hip screenings! Every child that comes to the department is screened twice during their first year for hip abnormalities using the donated ultrasound system. These screenings are done as part of child’s regular check-ups. If any abnormalities are noticed, the screening is done more frequently, roughly every 2-4 weeks.

Prior to receiving this new ultrasound system, every 3rd child had to be sent to the Children’s Health Care Institute in Novi Sad, primarily due to poor screen resolution on the old ultrasound system at the Health Center in Vrbas which prevented doctors from determining the correct pathology. Last year, we only sent 11 babies to the Institute in Novi Sad, providing significant savings to both patients and to the Health Center in Vrbas itself. In those 11 cases, we had to send the children to Novi Sad because our Health Center does not have a children’s orthopedist available to monitor the child’s development in light of recognized hip displacement.

We recently expanded the usage of this ultrasound system to do screenings with older children when we suspect that there are joint (particularly hip) problems as the system helps us with diagnostic accuracy. We are working to further expand the usage of this ultrasound system and to include a broader set of our doctors and other medical personnel in those screenings. We do hope that this will resonate with the management of our Health Center, as we are always trying to improve the health care services provided to our patients.

We hope to continue our collaboration with SAMA and wish you Happy and Successful New 2018 and many successful projects.

Dr. Jelena Lalatović.