Baxter helps expand access to health care globally

Baxter International said on Monday that it recently launched a public-private collaborative effort with Singapore’s Changi General Hospital to satisfy a surging demand for compounded sterile products.

The medical instruments and supplies company also has been improving access to health care globally through financial and in-kind donations to address critical needs.

The public-private partnership with the hospital will establish a Centre of Excellence in Compounding Sciences to develop a new model of care delivery that will extend beyond the hospital into patients’ homes and the community. The center is set to launch in 2017 on the premises of Changi General Hospital.

The partnership will develop clinical protocols and care pathways to enable certain patients to receive their compounded medications at home rather than in the hospital.

Additionally, Baxter made $51 million in financial and in-kind donations to meet important community needs throughout the world, including improving educations, increasing access to health care and helping developing nations that are in crisis. Its projects in 2014 included:

• Nearly $30 million from Baxter's businesses and facilities to address critical local needs in more than 42 countries.

• Nearly $3 million from the Baxter International Foundation, including grants to increase access to health care worldwide, prize programs recognizing excellence in community service and health care research, a scholarship program contributing to the education of Baxter employees' children, and support of employees' philanthropic efforts through the foundation's Dollars for Doers and Matching Gifts programs.

• More than $18 million from donations of Baxter products through donor partners and the company's U.S. patient-assistance programs.