VZCZCXRO4174
RR RUEHBZ RUEHDU RUEHJO RUEHMR RUEHRN
DE RUEHSA #1226/01 1610530
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 090530Z JUN 08
FM AMEMBASSY PRETORIA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 4687
INFO RUEHTN/AMCONSUL CAPE TOWN 5666
RUEHJO/AMCONSUL JOHANNESBURG 8087
RUEHDU/AMCONSUL DURBAN 9876
RUEAUSA/DEPT OF HHS WASHDC
RUEHPH/CDC ATLANTA GA 2342
RUCNSAD/SOUTHERN AF DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY COLLECTIVE
UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 PRETORIA 001226
SIPDIS
DEPT. FOR EEB/EPPD: N SMITH-NISSLEY; AF/S; OES/IHB
STATE PLEASE PASS TO USAID/W FOR GH AND AFR/SA
HHS/PHS FOR OFFICE OF GLOBAL HEALTH AFFAIRS WSTEIGER
CDC FOR GLOBAL HEALTH OFFICE SBLOUNT
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ECON BEXP EINV ELAB ETRD AMGT SOCI TBIO SENV SF
SUBJECT: ACE Nomination from AMEMB Pretoria for Johnson & Johnson,
South Africa
PRETORIA 00001226 001.2 OF 003
REFTEL: STATE 34994
1. Summary: Embassy Pretoria is pleased to nominate the Johnson &
Johnson Family of Companies South Africa (J/SA) for the
Secretary's ACE Award for Corporate Excellence in the multinational
enterprise (MNE) category. J/SA's groundbreaking work to
establish the Johnson & Johnson Burn Center (Burn Center) in Soweto
in 1990 and its continuous support of the Burn Center over the past
eighteen years makes it an exemplary model of corporate citizenship.
The Burn Center was South Africa's first health-related
public-private partnership (PPP), paving the way for other civic
alliances of business with the public health sector to benefit local
communities. J/SA is a leader in developing innovative
educational programs and conducts its business with an awareness of
local, national and global environmental concerns. It maintains
exemplary employment practices, demonstrates good corporate
citizenship by engaging in ethical business practices, maintains a
safe and healthy workplace for all workers, and respects local,
national and international authority. End Summary.
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The J Burn Center - From the Beginning
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2. Paraffin (kerosene) is widely used for heating and cooking in
poor, informal settlements, often near open flames. Cramped living
conditions contribute to fire-related accidents that can quickly
spread through the closely-packed shacks of an informal settlement.
As many as 45,000 paraffin fires break out each year in South
Africa, resulting in some 4,000 deaths and many more severely burned
victims. Without effective infection control management,
approximately 40 per cent of severely burned patients will die from
infection.
3. J/SA began looking for a major health-related project to
support in 1988. The Head of Surgery at Chris Hani Baragwanath
Hospital (Bara) in Soweto told J/SA that the hospital's most
critical need was a specialized burn unit. J/SA took up the
challenge by entering into an innovative partnership with Bara and
the University of Witwatersrand Medical School (Wits) to create the
Burn Center. J/SA designed and built a free-standing facility on
hospital land provided by Bara. J/SA maintains the Burn Unit
facility, providing essential equipment, products, management and
technological expertise in infection control, as well as funding of
training for the Center staff. Bara provides medical and allied
professional personnel to the Center, while Wits uses the Center to
train doctors, nurses and other professionals such as
physiotherapists, occupational therapists and nutritionists.
4. The Burn Center opened in April 1991 and now has 24 adult beds,
including four intensive care unit (ICU) beds, in addition to an
operating theater, wound treatment areas, and physical and
occupational therapy areas. J/SA added a greatly needed pediatric
extension in 1993 with 26 beds and four ICU beds. Over half of the
patients admitted to Bara with serious burns are children, for whom
burns continue to be a significant cause of death. Burn patients
face particular problems in handling intense pain and need
Qface particular problems in handling intense pain and need
specialized care to reduce scarring and loss of movement. The
Center provides holistic treatment for the patients, aiming to heal
not only the body, but also the mind and spirit. J/SA has
hands-on involvement with the Center, visiting it monthly to provide
not only its funds, but the skills and support of its employees.
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Effective Burn Treatment Saves Lives
------------------------------------
5. The Burn Center treats more than 600 patients per year, receiving
severely burned patients from its home Gauteng Province, as well as
surrounding provinces. The Center has achieved remarkable results.
A study extending from 1995-2003 showed that mortality of burn
patients had been reduced from the former 40 per cent to 17.3 per
cent. Patients treated at the Center can survive burns covering up
to 70 per cent of their body. The Center is regarded not only as
Africa's best burn facility, but one of the best in the world. The
Center recently provided life-saving treatment to victims of the
xenophobic violence against foreigners in May 2008. As of the date
of this nomination, there are three victims from Mozambique and one
from Gabon being treated in the Center. J/SA used the experience
it gained with the Center to provide advice and financial support
for the conversion of a ward at the Red Cross Hospital in Cape Town
PRETORIA 00001226 002.2 OF 003
into a burn unit. Three private hospitals have used the Center as
a model for their own smaller burn wards.
6. Burn Center personnel perform community outreach to educate the
public about the dangers of paraffin and other fire hazards, and
burn prevention. J/SA produced a series of prevention posters
that are distributed to the public by the World Burn Foundation.
The Burn Center is a model training facility not only for Bara, but
for all of South Africa and other neighboring countries, with nurses
brought in from other African countries to train at the Center.
Protocols developed at the Burn Center are frequently used as
standards of best practice in the region. It is a center of
excellence for teaching and healing and has served as a prototype
for four other PPPs at Bara, such as the Hand Injury Unit sponsored
by Anglo American Mining. J/SA has invested more than 21 million
rand (approximately $2.8 million dollars at current exchange rates)
into the Center and annually funds at least another 600,000 rand
(approximately $80,000 dollars) in annual support costs.
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J South Africa, a Leader in Many Areas
----------------------------------------
7. In addition to the Burn Center, J/SA maintains exemplary
employment practices and has a formal personnel policy that is
committed to eliminating all forms of discrimination in the
workplace and to implementing affirmative action measures to ensure
equitable representation in all occupational categories and levels.
The educational needs of its employees are met with scholarships,
payment of school fees, book packages and educational support
programs. Employees are offered the course "English at Work" to
improve their English language skills.
8. J/SA has been a leader in developing innovative educational
programs to build capacity in the health care sector. It was a
founding sponsor of Medical Education for South African Blacks
(MESAB) in 1985. MESAB proQdes scholarships for black students at
South African Universities and technical schools in the professions
of medicine, nursing and other health-related fields. There are now
more than 2,500 MESAB university graduates and 8,000 MESAB midwives.
J/SA is a sponsor of the Hospital Leaders Program, established in
partnership with the University of Cape Town Graduate School of
Business, which draws from government and the public health sector
and aims to develop leadership and management skills in the health
care sector.
9. J/SA demonstrates its consciousness of local and global
environmental concerns through its voluntary purchase of more
expensive "green" energy for its J Medical Ltd. unit. J Medical
Ltd. entered into a five-year contract for the purchase of Qeen
energy, becoming only the second company in South Africa to do so.
Tradable Renewable Energy Certificates (TRECs) enable producers to
generate more costly, renewable "green" electricity within South
Africa's voluntary market by matching producers with purchasers who
are willing to pay the additional costs of production of "green"
electricity. J/SA purchased 249 TRECs in 2008, representing 249
Qelectricity. J/SA purchased 249 TRECs in 2008, representing 249
megawatt hours of green power, resulting in an estimated savings of
548,000 kilograms of CO2 emissions, 124,000 kilograms of coal,
320,000 liters of water, and 35,216 kilograms of ash production.
10. J/SA receives an annual certificate of registration certifying
that it complies with ISO 140001 environmental management standards.
J/SA also receives annual South African Bureau of Standards
(SABS) certification for its occupational health and safety
management system. J/SA receives annual SABS certification that
its quality management system complies with the requirements of ISO
9001:2000 standards. These certifications involve all activities,
products and services related to repackaging, manufacturing and
distribution of all medical supplies and contact lenses.
11. J/SA complies with all South African, U.S. and international
laws, including not engaging in any form of bribery, extortion or
illegal tax exemption and favoritism in order to create a fair and
open marketplace. The company is headquartered in New Brunswick,
New Jersey and has been in South Africa since 1930. J/SA
currently has 975 employees and has substantial investments in SA,
including three manufacturing facilities and an office park. It
recently sold one of its pharmaceutical facilities to a Broad Based
Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) group for previously
disadvantaged people that has a five-year agreement to manufacture
J products, encouraging the growth of BBBEE enterprises.
PRETORIA 00001226 003.2 OF 003
12. J/SA has supported the local American Chamber of Commerce
(AMCHAM) for many years, including allowing its Executive Director
for Government Affairs and Policy to serve as the President of
AMCHAM for the past three years. J/SA has continued to provide
essential medical supplies to Zimbabwe in the face of deteriorating
political and economic conditions in that country, despite the
growing commercial risk. It has done so out of loyalty to the
doctors and nurses of Zimbabwe and concern for its people, even
though it is the only major medical supplier that continues to do
so.
Bost