Parrish Medical Center Recycles to Aid the Homeless in North Brevard

Parrish Medical Center Recycles to Aid the Homeless in North Brevard

TITUSVILLE, FLA. (Feb. 4, 2019)—Blue medical wraps used in Parrish Medical Center’s operating rooms to cover and safeguard sterilized surgical instruments will find a second use in covering and safeguarding the homeless.

The water-resistant, heat-sustaining wraps shield surgical instruments after they are sterilized for operating room use. The wraps are removed prior to starting the procedure so they don’t come in contact with patients in the operating room. Hospitals typically discard or recycle the wraps.

Sherry Pierce, CRNA, learned of a recycling project online from a medical center in Camden, New Jersey and brought the idea to Rebecca Tipton, manager of Perioperative Services. They realized there could be a better use for the excess medical equipment at Parrish Medical Center, too.

“I had seen the medical wraps could be converted for use by the homeless,” Pierce said. “I thought about our hospital’s vision, ‘Healing Families–Healing Communities®.’ It’s another way for Parrish Medical Center care partners to live our vision.”

A team of operating room care partners have volunteered to assemble and sew the wraps into mats, sleeping bags, pillows and drawstring travel bags. There’s no set goal on quantities, but Tipton says, “The more the better.” When the wraps are completed they will be donated to North Brevard Charities Sharing Center for their use in aiding the homeless.

“When Sherry presented the idea, the surgical team was immediately enthusiastic it,” said Matt Graybill, director of Perioperative Services. “By helping to keep them warm and dry, these wraps will be a comfort to those in great need.”

Tipton said that donating the wraps bring multiple benefits. The medical equipment is being reused instead of discarded. The recycled wraps provide comfort to those who will use them. And this project gives Parrish Medical Center care partners another way to help people, which is why we work in healthcare.

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Caption: Pictured (left to right) North Brevard Charities Sharing Center’s Lomika Hardy, Diane Patterson, Jonda Erwin, Joe Robinson; with Parrish Medical Center’s; Sherry Pierce, CRNA, Rebecca Tipton, manager of Perioperative Services.