Helping Patients Near & Far

Janice Walker, Chico Project SAVE’s Executive Director, identifies some of the areas where the group has redistributed medical and dental equipment to help patients near and far.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful if unused medical supplies — often purchased in bulk when the user only needs one or two — could still benefit others? Thanks to a local organization, those items can fulfill their potential.

Chico Project SAVE — short for Salvage All Valuable Equipment — has sought to eliminate equipment waste since Enloe anesthesiologist Phyllis Cullen, M.D., and the now-disbanded Enloe Men’s Associates founded it in the 1990s. The group collects and then redistributes good-quality medical and dental equipment and supplies locally and worldwide, providing for patients who might otherwise need to go without.

Chico Project SAVE benefits Chico-area patients, too, and Enloe Health in particular. If patients’ insurance doesn’t cover items they need, “Enloe Home Health will refer them to us. They’re a tremendous resource,” said Janice Walker, Chico Project SAVE’s Executive Director.

For example, Enloe Health Home Health “ran out of things immediately after the 2018 Camp Fire, including oxygen carts and CPAP machines. We were able to help Enloe” with Chico Project SAVE supplies on hand, she said.

Patients can also walk in and take certain items at no charge — like incontinence supplies, walkers, canes and toilet risers — with some limits, making sure everyone can benefit. Chico Project SAVE helps, on average, 90 local individuals in the 3 hours the organization is open each Tuesday morning.

Doctors Help Spread the Word

Dr. Cullen — on Enloe’s staff from 1976 until 2012 — and volunteers began saving items for use by local doctors embarking on medical missions. Enloe has always been one of Chico Project SAVE’s main donors of goods.

Walker, a Chico resident, became the Chico Project SAVE executive director and expanded its operations in 2004.

The organization occupies a long-empty clothing factory in the Chico Regional Airport’s business park, accomplishing its mission of extending the usefulness of medical products. It sends items — ranging from hospital beds, wheelchairs, IV supplies, latex gloves and surgical equipment, to name just a few — to aid struggling hospitals and clinics in underdeveloped countries, and for locals needing supplies and equipment.

Walker explained that the group needs no advertising for its overseas mission, as “word of mouth” is effective.

“It’s one doctor to another,” she said. Walker and her husband went on numerous surgical missions and met many physicians who also went overseas, helping to spread the word.

“People here talk about us, too. There was a student who came here (to California State University, Chico,) from Burkina Faso (in West Africa) and set up a clinic there” using Chico Project SAVE goods. Also, Enloe Health surgeon Wissam Halabi, M.D., took some supplies to Kenya.

Walker added, “Medical missionary types hear about us from the hospital. They take supplies (overseas) for laparoscopic, wound care” and other specialties.

Chico Project SAVE usually ships goods by boat, which is costly. Shipping is the expense overseas organizations must shoulder.

“We ask that they raise the funds when they have connections,” she said. “Shipping costs overseas range from $5,000 to $13,000, depending on where they’re located. The most expensive ones are the places that require the containers to get off the ships at the port and then get trucked inland.

“That is a shipment of goods worth $200,000 to $400,000. We don’t charge them for the goods.

“We try to find the most economical way to ship,” Walker continued. “It takes about three months for the items to reach their destination. We pack the containers floor to ceiling and they get trucked to the Port of Oakland” to board ships.

The group has sent 249 container loads to 49 nations, Walker said, and will notch its 50th nation this year when it sends supplies to the Congo.

In Their Own Words

Learn more about the partnership between Enloe Health and Chico Project SAVE by listening to the latest episode of Health Matters.