An 11-member team from Belmont’s College of Pharmacy is traveling to Guatemala twice this summer to provide aid and expertise to the Moore Pediatric Surgery Center (MPSC). Open since March 2011, more than 800 needy children have received free life-altering surgical care from MPSC.

The Belmont team just returned from its first trip July 8-13 in which it teamed with MPSC to implement the hospital’s first computerized inventory system. During the week-long mission, the seven-person team worked with MPSC leadership to finalize the inventory categorization model and to set coding conventions. In addition, the team purchased and implemented inventory management software, documented and coded more than 750 individual items, created and affixed barcodes to all inventory and determined IT needs to link the new system across multiple computer stations.

This inventory system will help to ensure patient safety, assist in MPSC planning and enable donors to better target needed supplies. Follow the Belmont’s team’s ongoing updates on its Tumblr site or on Facebook.

A second team will return to Guatemala Aug. 4-8 to continue this medical mission work. Participants on the two trips include faculty members Drs. Eric Hobson and Angela Hagan as well as students Chris Kepinski, Rebecca Yost, Leah Dickerson, Quyen Nguyen, Henry Lim, Erin Todd, Kandice Squires and Allison Sweat.