April 17, 2019
Announcing the return of our ONLINE inventory!
Regular users of the REquipment reuse program were acutely aware that our inventory of refurbished durable medical equipment (DME) was offline from December 1, 2018, to April 1, 2019. Why were we down for so long? Hosting of our inventory’s database was required to be transferred to a HIPAA-compliant hosting agency to protect the personal information of people requesting devices. The process to find a host agency and to transfer the data (and all the “fixin’s”) took much longer than anticipated. One caller said it took less time to get an astronaut to the moon than to get our inventory back up!
This 4-month hiatus taught us something important about ourselves, however. Our staff is awesome!
A huge thank you to Jennifer Baker, REquipment Program Director. Jen designed and implemented Plan B for running our services. REquipment Coordinators Dan Perkins and Tiffany Falco and the reuse staff in Canton, Worcester, Amherst, and Pittsfield also went the extra mile for four long months. We took requests over the phone and off Facebook. We entered everything into spreadsheets. We reviewed available equipment with each person who connected with us. And in the end–drum roll please–we blew our numbers out of the water with old school ingenuity. Yes, during the same period last year REquipment delivered 899 DME devices; this year we delivered 968!
We’re bursting with pride that we managed to pull this off and if you love it too, here’s how you can help.
Right now call your state legislators and tell them how important our program is to you and your community. It’s budget-making season and we want to be sure to maintain the Commonwealth’s commitment to our statewide expansion. Ask your representative to co-sponsor Amendment #93 to H3800 Assistive Technology in the House Budget (which earmarks assistive technology). Calls are needed through April 19th.
Now that our inventory is back online, and with your continued support, we expect many more individuals with disabilities, families, seniors, and veterans will get the rollators, scooters, power chairs and shower chairs they need quickly, without hassle, to maintain their independence.
Our mission is a win-win-win for everyone. DME donors pay it forward (and may receive a tax donation letter). DME users obtain what insurance denies or drags its feet to provide. And everyone benefits when valuable devices are diverted from the local solid waste station.
As always, thank you for your letters of support, cards of thanks, financial donations, posts on Facebook and general enthusiasm for growing our DME reuse movement.
