Rush Remedy Heals People and the Planet

Friday, August 15, 2008

JC Jones MA RN

Rush University Medical Center has come up with an exciting way to go green - recycling unused medical supplies. In a program called Rush Remedy, staff and medical students collect unused medical equipment and supplies and ship them to international hospitals and clinics in need. Since the inception of the program in January 2008, volunteers have donated 12,000 pounds of supplies that would have otherwise ended up in landfills.

It is estimated that the US alone wastes 2000 tons or $200 million dollars worth of unused medical supplies while developing nations suffer shortages in basic equipment we take for granted - like gloves and syringes. The waste is a burden to the environment and represents what the Rush volunteers see as a call to action for a nation wide program of material recovery and reuse.

At Rush, 2000 pounds of materials are collected every month and placed in 40 foot containers and then shipped to areas of need around the world via MedShare International. MedShare is an Atlanta based organization that bridges the gap between surplus and need, developing protocols for safe donation of materials and coordinating redistribution to those in need. Recipient hospitals and clinics must be approved and some nations that have benefited are Afghanistan, Haiti, Kenya, Ecuador, Ukraine and Uganda.


Thank you interplast for use of photo, Medial Supplies in Peru.

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