Making healthcare run better, everywhere we go
We understand that much of the world lives in a clinical desert, unable to access even the most basic care. Partnering with nonprofit organizations and health facilities all over the world, we create solutions that empower communities and free up the resources that healthcare providers need to deliver their best care.
In 2021, we continued to help our partners around the world through remote support and online education opportunities to ensure our continued commitment to global health equity.
We focus on three key areas
We’re helping healthcare facilities work more efficiently, treat more patients and share the benefits of health education.
Supply chain optimization
We analyze supply chain performance, identifying bottlenecks, process breakdowns and opportunities to improve. We then introduce new processes to help control costs, effectively manage donations, reduce inventory waste and optimize performance.
Perioperative efficiency
We identify the processes healthcare facilities use to manage their operating rooms and pinpoint challenges within these processes. Then, we work together to create and implement new efficiencies, from stocking inventory to organizing supplies and storage areas. These improvements support perioperative efficiencies for the long haul.
Health education
We assess a community’s health education to find gaps in learning. We then fill in these gaps by teaching everyday healthy habits such as hand hygiene, oral hygiene and basic first aid. Reinforcing—and practicing—these habits creates a ripple effect, advancing the health and well-being of whole communities.
Providing worldwide medical relief
We work with international aid organizations to collect Medline surplus and unused items and deliver them to developing regions globally. In 2021, Medline donated the equivalent of 275 metric tons of product—valued at more than $3.61 million. Our partners include:
- Direct Relief
- Globus Relief
- Map International
- MedShare
- One World Surgery
- Project C.U.R.E
- World Medical Relief
- CURE International
Our products reached people across 80 different countries.
Making sure everyone gets the healthcare they deserve
Along with donating products, our employees volunteer their time and expertise to help facilities and communities in need. Through our global health projects, employees lend their skills toward building healthcare capacity in low-resource countries.
Volunteerism and employee giving
One World Surgery (OWS) runs a surgery center in Honduras that provides safe and free surgical care to an underserved population.
The impact of surgical intervention is unlike any other health intervention. It can cure one-third of all human illness and disease. But in chronically underfunded health systems, oftentimes surgical care is ignored and widely inaccessible to the poor. Local facilities sometimes lack appropriate supplies and equipment. Medical professionals sometimes do not have training or experience in the latest techniques, and few can afford the high cost of surgery.
We continue to support OWS with supply chain and perioperative efficiency projects that have transformed the way purchased and donated perioperative supplies are organized, minimizing redundancies and overages. Additionally, in 2021, three Medline volunteers assisted with setup of the organization’s new facility in the Dominican Republic.
Global health supply chain education
In 2020, we formed a partnership between Partners in Health and Loyola University Chicago to develop a bachelor’s degree in global health supply chain management for the University for Global Health Equity in Rwanda. In 2021, a group of volunteers from our Medical Affairs team conducted a literature review and competitive analysis to inform the curriculum.
Passion for wound care unites clinicians across the world to create sustainable change
Medline’s Global Health Initiative created a comprehensive online series program to support clinicians in low-resource countries. The free, four-course series helps bring Medline’s wound care knowledge to more people around the world, empowering clinicians to further impact their communities.
Resources for patient care
Community Empowerment (CE), a nonprofit partner of Rush University Hospital, hosts primary care and surgical trips to the Dominican Republic and Haiti. In the past, we partnered with CE to help organize supplies and optimize space within their warehouses in the Dominican Republic. In 2021, to better streamline the organization’s supply chain, Medline volunteers conducted a physical inventory of CE’s Chicago Warehouse.