By redistributing medical equipment & supplies, MATTER increases access to health in some of the hardest to reach places on earth. When a community has access to quality healthcare, it can change just about everything!
Partnerships with local hospital and healthcare providers make this effort possible. Through these valuable partners, we procure life-saving equipment and supplies for underserved hospitals and clinics around the world.
We’re proud to say that many of these partnerships involve some of the Midwest’s largest healthcare providers, including Allina Health, Children’s Minnesota, Fairview, Gillette Children’s Specialty Healthcare, HealthPartners and UnityPoint Health.
Vini Manchanda, Vice President of Supply Chain Services and Purchasing for HealthPartners, explains why HealthPartners works with MATTER,
“HealthPartners intentionally works with organizations that help us further our mission to improve the health and well-being of our community. By working with MATTER we stretch our impact from the Midwest to around the globe. It is really rewarding to see how our excess equipment and materials improve the lives of those in need in other countries.”
Lives like those in the jungle city of Pucallpa, Peru. This dusty, cramped city boasts 300,000 residents, many of whom survive on subsistence farming. Hospital Amazónico sits in the heart of this burgeoning city and does its best to serve the community despite its limited resources.
Through an organization called Scalpel At The Cross, a partnership developed with the hospital. For the last ten years, Scalpel At The Cross has been sending a team of surgeons from the US to perform orthopedic trauma surgery at the hospital, regardless of patients’ ability to pay.
Determined to help the hospital improve its ability to deliver healthcare, Scalpel At The Cross reached out to MATTER. In November, a 40-foot shipping container of medical equipment & supplies arrived at the hospital. Upon unloading the contents, the hospital personnel were astounded at the pristine condition of the equipment.
“Prior to the donation there was real skepticism about the donation in terms of doctors and head of departments. There was a whisper of the medical equipment being sub-par and the project simply just a way to offload old equipment. However, once the container arrived and was unloaded many of the skeptics went to our point person on this project and patted him on the back and thanked him for making the donation possible.“ Esteban Cardona, Communications Coordinator, Scalpel At The Cross
As with every medical container that MATTER ships, the container to Hospital Amazónico delivered so much more than hospital beds, exam gloves and stretchers. It brought hope and encouragement to the hearts of both hospital staff and their patients. Esteban described the impact on the doctors,
“To see such generosity has filled the doctors with inspiration to go above and beyond their calling to heal. This donation sparked a fire in them to demand more from their employees and the government that supports them. It inspires them to want more for their hospital.”
MATTER is grateful for our hospital partners that enable us to help organizations deliver health and hope to communities across the globe by redistributing medical equipment & supplies. Over the last three years, our collective impact has been remarkable:
- 40 countries impacted
- $52,500,000 in medical equipment & supplies
- 157 containers shipped
But the impact of our redistribution program goes deeper than what these numbers represent. Our hospital partners themselves benefit from the program in countless ways. April Schumacher, Sustainability Specialist for Fairview Health Services, describes how the partnership benefits Fairview’s mission and employees,
“Fairview Health Services recognizes the connection between communities and environmental health while emphasizing our mission to heal, discover and educate for longer, healthier lives. By partnering with MATTER, not only are we improving our environmental footprint by finding ways to keep equipment and supplies from being wasted, but we’re also opening pathways for our providers and staff to demonstrate our values and advance our vision to drive a healthier future by volunteering both locally and abroad.”
Thank you, hospital partners! We look forward to our continued partnerships in redistributing medical equipment & supplies as we impact even more lives together in the coming years!
