Shipping health care to other countries, room by room
While prosthetic limb donation programs are new to Massachusetts, many local hospitals participate in similar programs that send surplus medical equipment to developing countries.
One run by International Medical Equipment Collaborative, a North Andover nonprofit, provides complete hospital “rooms’’ in one shipment, with everything from expensive equipment to bed linens, said Thomas Keefe, the organization’s president and founder.
“We talk directly to the hospital and determine which types of rooms they need,’’ Keefe said, noting that surgery, inpatient, pediatric, and maternity rooms are popular requests. “Oftentimes, things like eye care and dental [equipment] are also included because in many situations, hospitals provide all the care.’’
Local community service organizations raise shipping funds while volunteers organize the equipment and package the shipments, he said.
“What makes it run is, without question, the volunteers,’’ Keefe said.
The collaborative, founded in 1995, anticipates finishing 60 projects in 20 countries this year, he said, noting that a single project could involve up to 20 rooms.
“With the health care system we have, we’re able to stay current with equipment,’’ Keefe said. “Therefore, there’s always a surplus coming out of the hospitals.’’
Institution Recycling Network, a New Hampshire-based, for-profit company that helps hospitals, colleges, and other institutions to streamline their waste systems, has seen its surplus medical equipment program grow from 35 ocean containers in 2004 to 500 this year, said Mark Berry, the company’s surplus program manager.
“The growth’s been tremendous because the need is there,’’ Berry said. “A village in Nicaragua, for example, would much prefer a container load of medical equipment than a container of anything else.’’
Donor hospitals pay only the land shipping costs and a small fee to the recycling network for handling the logistics, a savings of up to 30 percent over disposal costs. Overseas shipping is covered by charities operating in developed countries, Berry said.
“If we intercept it before it gets to a landfill, we can usually get it overseas for much less of a cost and make a lot of people happy.’’
