Amy: Patient Recruitment: An Interesting Challenge

  Patient With a Cleft Lip and a Cool Hat 
  Originally uploaded by interplast.

We're all impressed with the hospital’s organization efforts. Patient recruitment has been an interesting challenge. Traditional methods used at our other sites (TV, radio and newspaper) didn't work for some reason. China has 300 million migrant workers, and many parents go to the cities to make incomes three times greater than what they could earn at home. Since the area around Ganzhou City is predominantly rural, many children stay with their grandparents while their parents seek employment in larger, eastern cities. Many grandparents do not pay attention to radio or TV, so the provincial family planning organization sends workers out by foot to the villages to tell people about the Interplast surgical volunteers. Patients sometimes come from 150 miles away to have the opportunity to receive free reconstructive plastic surgery.