Nurse sends unused medical supplies to needy nations

The Stuff Hospitals Throw Away

Hospitals throw out millions of dollars worth of unused medical supplies every year, for a number of reasons - for instance, because they're outdated.

Nonprofit groups are collecting the supplies and shipping them to developing countries. But tons of items still wind up in landfills. As part of a collaboration with Northeast stations, Josie Huang of Maine Public Radio reports.

For more than 30 years Elizabeth McLellan has been a nurse and she still can't get over how many perfectly good items hospitals discard. She recalls how one hospital switched to a new type of catheter, and no longer wanted the old kind.

McLellan: "And they were going to throw it all away, probably about $5,000 worth of supplies were going to be thrown away in the trash."

McLellan couldn't let such supplies go to waste. So she started a non-profit that collects unwanted inventory from hospitals in Maine to send to clinics in developing countries.

McLellan: "I think there's a light switch over here somewhere. This is the dining room."

McLellan has filled several rooms in her own home with bags stuffed with hospital supplies in their original packaging.

McLellan:"Sterile syringes, diabetic syringes, insulin syringes, gloves, alcohol swabs, everything you could possibly imagine."

McLellan says hospitals throw out these items that were once in a patient's room because of strict infection-control protocols. They're required for hospital accreditation.

Full Story: http://www.nhpr.org/node/27737