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How donated supplies benefit the community.

Each year, Firelands Health, a not-for-profit healthcare facility, is required to report on its millions of dollars in community benefits. Community benefits include uncovered medical education costs, charity care and care not covered by Medicare and Medicaid. It also includes donations, subsidized health services and community health education and outreach programs.

Not included on the list: donated supplies.

A hospital’s supplies inventory is impressive. For example, Firelands Health restocks 900 syringes to the nursing units daily. “To reduce waste,” said Mike Messa Jr., director of supply chain at Firelands, “we are always looking to reduce any SKUs (stock keeping unit),” a unique code assigned to each product to track inventory. “If we have two types of gauze, we ask if we can reduce it to one type and satisfy all the needs of the clinical staff and make sure it’s the best for the patients.”

At Firelands Health, our community is at the heart of our supply donation process. Mike and his team actively track supplies that can be donated. If equipment is still functional and useful for patient use, they look to see if there is a need for it locally. Expired disposable supplies are donated to the Firelands Regional Medical Center School of Nursing or another teaching facility in the area. This not only helps the institutions but also familiarizes students with actual products used in healthcare.

To community. And beyond.

Firelands Health's impact extends far beyond our local community. Our donations, including disposable supplies like sutures (sterile threads used to close surgical incisions and repair cuts), gauze, adhesive bandages, masks, gloves, gowns, toothpaste and toothbrushes, shampoo and stethoscopes have traveled as far as Africa for use on medical missions. Closer to home, Firelands Health also donates to area warming and cooling shelters, providing personal hygiene items to those in need.

“Supply chain management is critical for delivering high-quality healthcare,” Mike said. “While delivering essential supplies and equipment at the right time, demand patterns are unpredictable due to patient needs, emergency situations and seasonal variations, but we ensure nothing is wasted.”