Preparing to load a shipment of used medical equipment and supplies into a Global Links truck are, from left, Jefferson Regional employees Rich Preffer, Kevin Reilly and Rich Klosky, and Global Links representatives Robin Checkley and Mike Smith.

JEFFERSON HILLS, PA - February 15, 2007 - Jefferson Regional Medical Center has teamed up with Global Links, a Pittsburgh-based nonprofit organization, to donate used medical equipment and supplies for use in Third World countries.

Global Links Deputy Director Angela Garcia explained that the organization is dedicated to reducing the amount of still-useful surplus that is needlessly thrown away in the U.S., while helping to provide targeted hospitals in developing countries with the ability to better treat their patients, and expand services.

To meet these goals, Global Links recovers unused medical supplies as well as equipment and furnishings from U.S. hospitals for distribution to hospitals and clinics that serve the poorest segments of the population in those countries. From the smallest amounts of suture - surgical thread that is discarded to comply with government regulations - to hospital furnishings that are no longer being used or are in need of repair, Global Links sorts and processes donated materials to meet recipients’ needs.

Jefferson Regional has participated in several shipments by Global Links, including a recent contribution of five special psychiatric beds that were needed for a mental health hospital in Guyana. Garcia said the hospital in South America had to destroy all of its existing beds and mattresses due to an outbreak of bed bugs. Global Links was able to obtain 129 mattresses, other basic furnishings and medical supplies, and the psychiatric beds from Jefferson Regional, to send to Guyana to help the health facility there.

“These donations have certainly had an immense impact on those patients’ lives,” she said. “We’re happy to have Jefferson on board.”

Robert Frank, chief financial officer at Jefferson Regional, said of the Global Links project, “It’s an opportunity to take items that we would normally dispose of and put them to use in Third World countries that are in desperate need of any equipment or supplies that we can send.”

Rich Preffer, team leader, Maintenance, who assists with the project, said Jefferson already has contributed patient beds, stretchers, an operating room light and two pallets of obsolete medical supplies to Global Links.

“I am glad to be a part of the team that is recycling usable medical equipment and supplies to under-developed countries that can use them,” he said.