Ed Newman enjoys his weekly drives, darting from hospitals in eastern Washington County to nursing homes on Ohio鈥檚 southern border. He sees it as a scavenger hunt: each stop is a chance to find a discarded piece of medical equipment.
鈥淚t鈥檚 too important not to salvage that,鈥� Newman said.
Newman is the director of . Every week, he picks up vacant wheelchairs, unused hospital beds and crutches that have been collecting cobwebs and finds a home for them in southeast Ohio, where health care access is lacking.
Ohio鈥檚 Appalachian residents are more likely to lack health insurance than their urban counterparts. At the same time, there are fewer physicians providing care in these regions, according to the .
Amid these disparities, a local nonprofit in Appalachian Ohio is encouraging residents to focus on what鈥檚 already in their community to bridge the gaps.
鈥淲e go in and see where the strengths of a community are and help them focus on those,鈥� Newman said.
Repurposing equipment
On a February afternoon, Newman stopped at Meigs County Public Library, one of the program鈥檚 collection sites, to pick up boxes of medical equipment. Library employee Chelsea Poole pulled out a walker that looked almost brand new.
鈥淭his looks like a good one,鈥� Poole said, passing the mobility aid to Newman.
Newman loaded the valuable find into the back of his van, already packed with an assortment of supplies. Instead of going to landfills, this discarded piece of medical equipment will go directly to a community member.
鈥淲e get all this really nice equipment from people who are well off and then we give that really nice stuff to people who don't have anything,鈥� Newman said. 鈥淚nstead of Robin Hood, they just give it to us.鈥�
Rural Action鈥檚 medical donation program began in 2021, modeled after , an organization that donates usable medical equipment overseas and locally in Cleveland.
Newman recognized that such a program could be a lifeline for people in rural Appalachian Ohio, where nearly 80% of counties are considered . Plus, fewer transportation options and limited broadband make it even more difficult to get care.
鈥淭here's a lot of people that don't have ready access to health care,鈥� Newman said. 鈥淪ome of the people we give stuff to are in a desperate situation and this changes that.鈥�
Meeting a need
These gaps in health care access mean there鈥檚 high demand for items as small and inexpensive as bandages, to large pricier items like motorized wheelchairs, which can cost anywhere between $2,000 and $20,000.
He brought around eight of these chairs to the in Athens County, where owner Dennis Jones takes this highly specialized equipment and fixes it at little or no cost for those in need.
鈥淲e had a gentleman who only had about six months to live and his insurance declined him on a chair. They didn't want to spend the money on it because it wouldn't be used long,鈥� Jones recalled. 鈥淲e were able to give him a chair. That gave him the ability to get around the nursing home and to be able to still play cards with everybody, go get his meals, make him more independent.鈥�
That鈥檚 the strength of the program: It can鈥檛 foot the bill for a surgery, provide life saving medication or decrease the region鈥檚 high rates of chronic health conditions. But for people like Rachel Everett, it can provide comfort.
When she was recovering from knee surgery last year, she borrowed a hospital bed, a bedside commode and a walker from the program.
鈥淚t was a huge relief to have all of the equipment that I needed to heal and get well at home, without worrying about the financial hardship or logistics of getting what I needed,鈥� Everett said.
Once she healed, Everett gave her equipment back to the program to help another community member.
Working together
With each donated brace, catheter or blood pressure monitor, Newman says word of the program鈥檚 benefits spread and their network grows. That鈥檚 important, he said, given Rural Action is one of the only organizations doing this kind of work in a rural region.
They鈥檙e organizing a summit this summer to connect nursing facilities, hospitals, waste districts and churches to develop a network of community members who recover medical equipment.
They鈥檒l all come together to rally around a simple idea: Healing is a shared responsibility.