April 6, 2018
The REquipment Durable Medical Equipment Reuse Program is five years old this month! The reuse program received its first grant from the Carl and Ruth Shapiro Family Foundation in April of 2013 to pilot DME reuse in the Greater Boston area. The Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission administered the grant, and the pilot was successful in identifying the need for a DME Reuse Program not only in the Greater Boston area but also across the state.
In addition to the Shapiro Family Foundation, we would like to thank past funders, The Boston Foundation and the Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital, for their support getting the program up and running. We would also like to thank the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission, Massachusetts Department of Developmental Services and the Department of Public Health’s Pappas Rehabilitation Hospital for Children for their on-going financial and in-kind support to make the REquipment program possible.
The Boston Home played an important fiscal intermediary role in this private-public partnership during our first three and a half years. Key players building the program were Randi Sargent, REquipment Program Director; Ann Shor, MRC’s Contract Manager; and Karen Langley, EOHHS’s Program Advisor. They designed the program, wrote grants for private funding and implemented the program that in five years has provided 2,418 people with refurbished durable medical equipment valued at $4.7 million. We would also like to acknowledge the Massachusetts’s State Legislature for providing funding in FY’16 that gave the program stability and the capacity to expand services statewide.
Lastly, we would like to thank the thousands of people who have generously donated their gently-used durable medical equipment to be refurbished so that seniors, children, and adults with disabilities and others can live with greater independence at home and in their communities.
Celebrate with us! Donate your gently-used durable medical equipment or make a financial donation to support our mission.