One Hospital's Trash, Another Hospital's Treasure

The Hospitalist. 2009 February;2009(02):

February 1, 2009 | The Hospitalist

How Hospitalists Can Help

The Doc to Dock initiative collects two types of supplies. The first is disposable, generally sterile, one-time-use supplies through a recycling program in operating rooms. Collection bins are placed in the operating rooms of hospitals, and the organization and the hospital arrange a procedure to regularly collect these supplies. “This is more labor intensive for us, and is a bit less practical if the hospitals are outside of our region,” Dr. Charash says. “Although it could be done on a case-by-case basis.”

The second type of supplies the Doc to Dock initiative focuses on are known within the organization as “capital equipment.” These donations range from hospital beds and stretchers, to sonogram machines and neo-natal incubators and defibrillators. These supplies usually come available when an institution renovates or upgrades equipment. “These are very important and a very high priority for us,” Dr. Charash explains. “It would be very helpful if a hospitalist would serve as a liaison with the hospital’s administration, to allow us to present our case to the hospital and to be kept in mind when renovations/replacements are scheduled.”

Doc to Dock pays for the donation retrieval and the overseas shipment costs. “Our success depends on establishing a large hospital donor network,” Dr. Charash says.

For more information, visit www.doctodock.org or www.clintonglobalinitiative.org.

Make a Donation

The supplies may be donated, but it takes money to truck them, warehouse them and ship them to Africa. Doc to Dock relies on funding raised from corporations and philanthropic sources, plus in-kind donations from trucking and shipping companies who often move supplies for minimal or no cost.

In addition to supplies, Dr. Charash is looking for equipment. Many hospitals and clinics replace equipment, still in perfect working order, with newer models. Anesthesia machines, cryosurgery machines, mammogram machines, and cancer screening equipment, have found their way to African hospitals.

The sonogram traveled to Tepa District Hospital by way of a 40-foot shipping container, along with other supplies and equipment once destined for a U.S. scrap heap. The district serves about 100,000 villagers, and the hospital had been saving its nickels—one at a time—to purchase its own sonogram. The fundraising drive would have taken 10 years. One can only guess how many babies would have died in the meantime.

Through 2008, Doc to Dock had shipped nine containers to Ghana, Benin, Liberia, East Africa, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda. Another container went to Haiti following a devastating hurricane. Four or five additional containers are just about ready to ship, Dr. Charash says. Each container costs about $25,000 per shipment. Dr. Charash estimates each shipment delivers approximately $500,000 worth of supplies and equipment.

Dr. Charash, who maintains privileges at Lenox and Mt. Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan, dreams big. He defines success by growing Doc to Dock to 100 containers per year within five years. He also wants to increase the number of hospitals donating goods, and the number of third-world hospitals receiving the supplies. Additionally, he wants to make the charity self-sustaining, as the need is always greater than the resources available.

“It’s a moral issue,” he says. “I have an obligation not to let it go to waste.” TH

Carol Berczuk is a freelance writer in New York CIty.