Collecting Unused Medical Supplies in Emergency Departments for Responsible Redistribution.

BACKGROUND

Medical supplies and equipment are unevenly distributed throughout the world.

OBJECTIVE

Our aim was to describe, quantify, and monetize unused supplies suitable for recovery produced from two urban emergency departments (EDs).

METHODS

We trained ED staff to place opened, unused, uncontaminated medical supplies in strategically located bins located in two urban EDs for 30 days. We sorted and quantified collected supplies, then used hospital-specific supply catalogs to determine the total cost of recovered medical supplies during the 30-day study period. We extrapolated the amount of collected medical supplies and associated costs to yearly estimates.

RESULTS

We recovered 39.9 kg ($6,096) from the trauma center and 3.4 kg ($539) from the academic center during the 30-day study period. The most commonly collected supplies included open but unused procedure kits ($1,776), catheter needles ($1,009), and sutures ($698). We estimated that the trauma center produces $73,158 of unused medical supplies per year and the academic center produces $6,467 of unused medical supplies per year.

CONCLUSIONS

We present a novel approach to decreasing waste and recovering usable medical supplies, in which we found that substantial, valuable medical supplies can be recovered in two urban EDs.