About orthopedic care in Colombia

Due to more then 50 years of war and because of diabetes, the number of people with a disability in Colombia is very large. Although there is a healthcare system in place that covers the majority of the population, a part of the Colombians face limited access to quality care. These are the three main reasons:

About carewithinreach

After having studied the Colombian orthopedic care system over the past four years, carewithinreach was founded in 2019 to address the significant gap in the delivery of secondary orthopedic care across Colombia.

We provide support to CPO’s, certified orthopedic clinicians, in upcoming economies to develop viable orthopedic care centers, delivering high quality care through a simple scalable franchise model. In order to decentralise and professionalise orthopedic services and deliver maximum impact, we operate in secondary cities, building a network of accessible orthopedic care centers.

Our mission

It is our mission to increase access to affordable, qualitative orthopedic care for people with a disability in upcoming economies.

Carewithinreach provides quality patient care by delivering on:

  1. patient welfare: we commit to the highest safety standards, in order to deliver the best quality care, and create a friendly caring environment
  2. operational excellence: we are dedicated to the continuous improvement of our processes and operations
  3. viability & growth: we offer a wide range of products, from mid to high end, bringing solutions to many different types of patients
  4. accessibility: our clinics are located in areas where there is no or limited orthopaedic care available, making a huge difference to people in these areas
  5. social enterprise: 10% of our profit is donated to help those who don’t have access to care

We are currently opening our first clinic in Tunja, Colombia. After having established three clinics in Colombia, carewithinreach aims to scale to other countries, bringing care to those who need it most.

You can read more about our first clinic here.

Our team

About Merel

Carewithinreach was founded by Merel Rumping in 2019 to address the significant gap in the delivery of secondary orthopedic care across Colombia. She has been working in Colombia since 2004, has built a large international network, and has a lot of experience working with the orthopedic industry in Colombia. She works alongside the team to oversee all activities needed to operate a viable clinic.

Merel developed a similar initiative called LegBank in 2015, that aimed to decentralize and professionalize orthopedic care in upcoming economies. She developed LegBank under the wings of a Dutch foundation. With carewithinreach, she continues the mission of LegBank through her own social enterprise.

About Christiaan

Christiaan van Hienen is a board member of carewithinreach since 2020. He has experience with running an orthopedic technology clinic as COO of Centrum Orthopedie in the Netherlands. Prior to that Christiaan held several management positions in the healthcare industry and holds an MBA from Tias School for Business and Society in Tilburg and a master’s degree in Applied Cognitive Psychology from the University of Utrecht.
Colombia has a special place in Christiaan’s heart ever since he has visited the country for the first time in 2007.

About Buxeros

Buxeros Capital is a public-private social impact investment fund that was founded by a group of well-known Dutch investors in cooperation with the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Buxeros invests in Dutch SMEs in emerging economies provided that a sound business case goes hand in hand with a positive impact on the local and regional economy. Buxeros invested in Profort in 2019, enabling the company to open its first office in the Colombian city of Tunja.