Since 1991, Operation Smile has conducted provided over 4,800 surgeries and performed more than 6,500 surgical procedures.
But there is more to do.
During Fiscal Year July 2025-June 2026, Operation Smile will invest $209,900 to provide care for 180 surgical patients and train over 120 health workers.
Over the course of the next five years, Operation Smile will deliver surgeries for ~1,030 patients and consultations to over 2,300 patients.
Cleft Care Programs
This year, Operation Smile will provide surgical care for 180 patients. We will expand comprehensive cleft care services by providing consultations in oral health (210 patients), nutrition (150 patients), speech therapy (∼390 patients) and psychosocial care (250 patients).
Education Programs
In Panama, more than 120 health workers will strengthen their ability to provide safe, high quality cleft care through targeted education and training. In partnership with the American Heart Association, we will deliver Basic Life Support training to strengthen providers’ ability to respond to emergencies, improving patient safety and outcomes.
THE NEED
Urban-rural divide. Despite making significant advances towards achieving universal health coverage, Panama faces a marked urban-rural divide, with Indigenous and rural populations lacking access to medical equipment, medicine and qualified doctors. The rate of extreme poverty in rural areas is six times higher than in urban areas. In 2015, there were only 1.3 hospital beds per 1,000 people in rural regions, while urban populations had 2.9 hospital beds per 1,000 people. According to Operation Smile’s survey, 29% of patients arriving at Operation Smile programs do not have a hospital within two hours of their home. These factors create barriers for patients in need of surgical care.
Shortfall of health workers. Panama has a shortage of skilled medical professionals, which leads to long waiting periods for patients. Panama has 26 specialist surgical workers per 100,000 people, which falls short of the average number of 71 specialist surgical workers in high-income countries.
Out-of-pocket expenses. According to Operation Smile’s survey, 70% of patients arriving at Operation Smile programs in Panama have no health insurance and 62% live below the poverty line. Out-of-pocket payments often prevent patients from accessing the treatment that they need. Financial barriers to care put children born with cleft conditions at an even greater risk. One in ten individuals faces impoverishing expenditure for surgical care, while 16% of the population risks catastrophic expenditure for surgical care. Operation Smile’s survey revealed that 89% of our patients in Panama could not have undergone surgery without the support of Operation Smile.
BRINGING CARE CLOSER TO HOME
To ensure that every child has access to care close to home, we equip the providers within our patients’ communities with skills and resources to deliver high-quality care. We strengthen health system capacity by harnessing the talent and resources concentrated in larger cities, the hubs, to train providers in under-resourced areas, the spokes, where access to care is most limited.
Our hub is based in Hospital José Domingo de Obaldía in David, where there is greater access to specialized care and advanced training, which we leverage to enable care in the spokes.
Our spoke is based in Santiago in Hospital Chicho Fábrega.
FIVE-YEAR VISION
Over the next five years, Operation Smile will provide surgeries for ~1,030 patients. We will deliver consultations to over 2,300 patients, expanding access to comprehensive cleft care services.
Through our collaboration with hospitals, Operation Smile is advancing training and education across key medical specialties and strengthening facilities with essential equipment and supplies to deliver high quality care. By working closely with the Ministry of Health, Gorgas Research Hospital and key stakeholders in the pharmaceutical industry, we are building a stronger system to expands access to care nationwide.