Trye Alice, Maloney Monica, Jalal Erica, Parikh Reshma, Jalloh Samba, Johnston Peter F, Padmanaban Vennila, Sifri Ziad
Surgery, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Newark, USA.
Internal Medicine, College of Medicine and Allied Health Sciences University of Sierra Leone, Freetown, SLE.
Cureus. 2020 Mar 9;12(3):e7228. doi: 10.7759/cureus.7228.
The Recovery of Equipment for Capacity building OVERseas (RECOVER) initiative at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School involves collection and donation of clean and unused medical supplies that would otherwise be discarded to those desperately in need of those supplies abroad. RECOVER has recently responded to the aftermath of the Ebola crisis and the even more recent mudslide natural disaster in Freetown, Sierra Leone, which had resulted in a considerable diminishing of the local medical supplies. The goal of this study was to assess the match between donated supplies and local needs by using a post-donation survey. In December 2016, we conducted a pre-donation survey inquiring which of the supplies available from RECOVER were needed by four hospitals in Freetown. The survey also asked about specific barriers to keeping such supplies in stock. After each hospital received a shipment of supplies, we administered an online Qualtrics (Qualtrics, Provo, UT) follow-up survey intending to assess the appropriateness of the donated supplies. The survey asked about which wards used what supplies, most useful items, ability to sterilize, and whether the donation provided supplies that would otherwise need to be bought. Recipient hospitals reported the use of 90% of donated supplies. The most useful supplies were gowns, scalpels, gloves, and drapes; All recipients reported the ability to sterilize donated goods. Supplies were used in operating rooms, emergency rooms, and medical wards. Donated supplies provided hospitals with supplies that would typically need to be bought or that were unavailable in the region. No adverse events were reported related to the use of donated supplies. At first glance, our donations appear usable and appropriate for the recipients. We hope to provide a framework for an objective measure of need for hospitals in other low-income countries, using the Freetown post-Ebola crisis as a pilot for the assessment of medical supply donations and the longitudinal impact it can have on global health and surgery overseas. More studies are required to further explore the possible implications of our program including those relating to medical waste management and environmental considerations when donating and shipping disposable supplies to a developing country.
罗格斯新泽西医学院的海外能力建设设备回收（RECOVER）倡议，涉及收集和捐赠干净且未使用过的医疗用品，这些用品若不捐赠就会被丢弃，捐赠对象是国外那些急需这些用品的人。RECOVER最近对埃博拉危机的后果以及塞拉利昂弗里敦最近发生的泥石流自然灾害做出了响应，这些灾害导致当地医疗用品大幅减少。本研究的目的是通过捐赠后调查来评估捐赠用品与当地需求的匹配度。2016年12月，我们进行了一次捐赠前调查，询问弗里敦的四家医院需要RECOVER提供的哪些用品。该调查还询问了库存此类用品的具体障碍。每家医院收到一批用品后，我们进行了一项在线Qualtrics（Qualtrics，普罗沃，犹他州）后续调查，旨在评估捐赠用品的适用性。该调查询问了哪些病房使用了哪些用品、最有用的物品、消毒能力，以及捐赠是否提供了原本需要购买的用品。接收医院报告称使用了90%的捐赠用品。最有用的用品是手术衣、手术刀、手套和手术巾；所有接收者都报告有能力对捐赠物品进行消毒。用品被用于手术室、急诊室和内科病房。捐赠用品为医院提供了通常需要购买或该地区无法获得的用品。未报告与使用捐赠用品相关的不良事件。乍一看，我们的捐赠似乎对接收者可用且合适。我们希望以弗里敦埃博拉危机后情况为试点，为评估医疗用品捐赠及其对海外全球健康和外科手术的长期影响，提供一个客观衡量其他低收入国家医院需求的框架。需要更多研究来进一步探讨我们项目可能产生的影响，包括在向发展中国家捐赠和运输一次性用品时与医疗废物管理及环境因素相关的影响。
