Stage One: selecting hospitals to participate in the project

September 5, 2005, the start was officially announced of accepting applications from Ukraine's children's hospitals willing to participate in the Hospital to Hospital International Partnership Program. To this end, the Foundation formulated a comprehensive list of questions by way of a special application form, answers to which allowed to impartially define the winners. The Foundation received around 70 applications for participation in the Program. To secure unbiased and transparent procedure of determining the winners, a special Experts Council was created, including experts in scientific and practical pediatrics from Ukraine’s oblasts, the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, etc. Members of the Experts Council had thoroughly studied and analyzed all applications received by the Foundation.

The Experts Council selected Ukrainian hospitals on a contest basis by two major criteria: the hospital's preparedness to take part in the program (the staff's consent, presence of English-speaking employees, etc.) and expedience (existence of objective conditions for adopting new technologies). Another important condition for the selection was equal representation of Ukraine's regions.

Winners of the Hospital to Hospital contest were officially announced on October 24 at the Ukraine 3000 International Charitable Foundation’s press conference.

Recommendations by the Experts Council of the Hospital to Hospital Program Regarding the Contest’s Winners

Stage Two: Identifying potential partners abroad

Looking for potential partners, we pin our hopes on a chance for direct communication between medical professionals of the partner hospitals and access to information and research results, along with technological exchange. For identifying and studying potential partners, the Foundation works actively in Ukraine and abroad. Most visits abroad by Head of the Supervisory Council of the Ukraine 3000 Foundation Kateryna Yushchenko include visits to children’s hospitals.

Stage Three: legal implementation of direct memorandums between Ukrainian and foreign partners.

December 14, 2005, another important partnership between a Ukrainian and foreign hospital was created in Eisenstadt, Austria. With active participation of Kiwanis member Franz Renhofer, a three-power treaty was signed between Lviv City Children’s Hospital, Barmherziger Brüder Hospital, and Ukraine 3000 International Charitable Foundation. First step in this cooperation was Barmherziger Brüder doctors working group’s visit to Lviv in February 2006. Its goal was getting acquainted with the hospital and its staff for establishing further cooperation. A group of doctors was selected, who later went through a training course in Austria.