Providing onsite healthcare access to our employees and families is the right thing to do

Honduras is not a country that has the kind of deep and robust healthcare systems that we’re used to in the United States and most of the developed world.

Many people in Honduras do not have access to primary care and interact with the healthcare system in the case of emergency or serious illness.

That’s why, at Anduro, we provide free access to a doctor on-site for our employees and their immediate families.

Why Anduro provides on-site doctor access to our employees and families

According to countryreports.org, medical care in Honduras varies greatly in quality and availability. Outside of Tegucigalpa and San Pedro Sula, medical care is inadequate to address complex situations. Support staff facilities and necessary equipment and supplies are not up to U.S. standards anywhere in Honduras. Facilities for advanced surgical procedures are not available. Wide areas of the country, including the popular tourist areas of the Bay Islands, do not have a general surgery hospital.

One of the major barriers to receiving good healthcare in Honduras is lack of access to physicians. The CDC reports that there are around 0.37 physicians per 1,000 people in Honduras. This number is far too low according to The Millennium Development Goal’s estimates for providing sufficient primary healthcare to a nation.

The Honduran health system is made up of a private and public sector. The public sector includes the Ministry of Health, which provides services to the majority of the population, and The Honduran Institute of Social Security.

There is also a private sector that includes nonprofit organizations as well as for-profit businesses, such as Anduro. For example, US-based AdventHealth maintains a hospital providing primary- and acute-care.

Overall, nine out of ten people are not covered by any health insurance and at least 18 percent of the population cannot access healthcare.

How Anduro’s access to a full-time doctor works

All of this is why Anduro steps up for its employees and their families by providing easy access to quality primary care.  We established a hygienic, well-stocked clinic staffed with a full-time licensed physician.

Dr. Amalia Murillo. Anduro’s full-time medical director, sees employees and family members at her office within the Anduro Manufacturing plant. In a typical week, she sees 50+ patients. She attends to the routine healthcare needs of Anduro employees and their families. For many of these people, the medical care they receive throughout the year at Anduro is the only “healthcare plan” that they can count on.

“In the U.S., we’re used to having easy access to quality medical care pretty much whenever and wherever we need it,” said Anduro CEO Marc Datelle. “But in Honduras, it is much more challenging to get quality medical care.  Our staff and their families can not really count on access to any healthcare under the current system.  We view our staff as an extended family; and just as we strive to take care of our family at home, it’s precisely why we took it on on ourselves to give our employees and their families easy access to quality healthcare. It’s just the right thing to do”

Anduro’s responsible approach to doing business has led to SMETA 4-pillars version 6 certification by Sedex Members Ethical Trade Audit as an ethical business.

“We are proud to be certified under the SMETA, the most up-to-date and demanding auditing process and standard,” noted Datelle. “Our certification is a trusted way for Anduro to inform our clients and suppliers they can depend on us to operate every aspect of our business according to the world’s highest ethical standards.”