Operation Walk Canada: Improving Capacity in Guatemala

Operation Walk Canada (Operation Walks) was a private not-for-profit orthopaedic surgical mission organization based in London, Ontario. Its purpose was to provide total hip and knee replacement surgeries to patients in low- and middle-income countries, such as Guatemala. who had little or no access to orthopaedic care due to social, political, and economic factors. For two years, the COVID-19 pandemic had forced the mission to temporarily pause its work, leaving behind an ever-growing waiting list of patients who needed life-changing surgical care. However, the tremendous burden of the pandemic, coupled with existing gaps in the health care services in Canada, resulted in an overwhelming need for support that went beyond the organization’s capacity. For the organization to meet this demand, the team members needed an effective and sustainable strategy that would maximize its ability to meet the orthopaedic health care needs of the population. Operation Walk must now consider key challenges before returning to Antigua, Guatemala, in the spring of 2022.

This case is designed for graduate- and post-graduate-level courses with a focus on global health systems and governance. The case may also have use within business courses that focus specifically on scaling businesses. After working through the case and assignment questions, students will be able to do the following:<ul><li>Identify evidence to support the challenges and risks that Operation Walk faces.</li><li>Identify the urgent, high-impact challenges that require prioritization.</li><li>Communicate proposed solutions using a global health systems thinking approach.</li><li>Draw connections between this case and cases assigned in previous classes.</li><li>Use the care delivery value chain to identify gaps in the delivery of care and improve a health care system.</li></ul>

• global health
• health systems