Medical students, from left, Michele Vigor, Tyler Merceron and Everett Gu collect items for the REMEDY program. (photo by Susan Urmy)
Program gives medical equipment new life
Vanderbilt University School of Medicine students and the OR staff at Vanderbilt University Hospital have taken the old expression, “one man's trash is another man's treasure” to heart.
Dozens of sterile drapes have been rescued from certain doom in the refuse pile by operating room staff at Vanderbilt. The still-sterile, unused drapes and other supplies are then collected from special bins by medical students for distribution to the far corners of the world — wherever the need is greatest.
It's part of a volunteer project called REMEDY (Recovered Medical Equipment for the Developing World). VUSM's chapter of REMEDY includes some 40 students who sign up monthly to go on collection duty, picking up items from special bins filled by the OR staff. During this school year, 86 boxes of recovered medical supplies and equipment were shipped to 11 countries on four continents.
School of Medicine students helping to collect unused medical items to be donated to hospitals in the developing world include, from left, John Andereck, Michele Vigor, Tyler Merceron, Harish Krishmnamoorthhi, Everett Gu, Rishi Naik and Tyler Windsors. (photo by Susan Urmy)
“We sent wash basins, gloves, butterfly needles, catheters, IV fluids, soap dispensers, gowns, and drapes to Haiti. They were absolutely well received as they were totally undersupplied in Port-Au-Prince,” said Tyler Winders, REMEDY student-coordinator.
In addition to drapes, the items most commonly collected are sterile, unused gowns, sutures, gloves, iodine antimicrobial prep kits, gauze, surgical rags and assorted scalpel blades and needles.
“We are required to discard items that are deemed by the manufacturer as single use, once they have been opened on the surgical field, said Lori Graves, R.N., interim operating room manager at the Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt.
“Some items are packaged in multiple quantities such as in a kit and we may not use all items, or it is determined during a procedure that a different item is needed instead,” Graves said.
Winders said most people are unaware of the tons of waste generated because of legal concerns and FDA regulations designed to ensure sterility of surgical supplies in this country.
“We just take that waste and do something productive with it. We wouldn't be able to do it without a great OR staff stuffing the bins with would-be trash and the students that make weekly collection runs,” Winders said.
Originally founded at Yale University's School of Medicine in 1991, REMEDY has hundreds of chapters all over the country. The Vanderbilt chapter has been in action for three years and is hoping to expand, adding more bins in more locations around campus.
If you have items you would like to donate, please email the group at vandyremedy@gmail.com. For more information, go to http://www.mc.vanderbilt.edu/root/vumc.php?site=remedy.