CLEVELAND — Since 1993, Medwish International has diverted surplus medical supplies from landfills into the hands of caregivers around the world, so far providing supplies to 115 countries. These perfectly usable medical supplies are donated from local hospitals, sorted, and then shipped to medically marginalized communities with the support of medical missions, clinics, hospitals, and nonprofits.
For the last 15 years, Medworks, has provided free medical care to those in need in Northeast Ohio who may be uninsured or underinsured. Initially, they provided a wide range of services, but after the Affordable Care Act passed in 2010, they now fill the gaps that still exist, mainly in vision, dental, and women's health.
Today, the two nonprofits announced their intentions to merge and combine resources to remove barriers to health care locally and also address health care disparities in neighborhoods of need.
"[What] the public is going to see is more of us [will] have more opportunities to engage in patients that need our services locally and supplies locally to have more access points and more opportunity to see our doctors, our dentists, and supplies," Medworks founder Zac Ponsky said.
The merger makes sense and streamlines services, and it also creates one of the biggest volunteer opportunities in town.
"Whether you want to do international brigades, whether you want to volunteer on a daily basis, sorting of supplies, or you want to go to dental clinics and vision clinics here at in our own backyard, we are going to have just a multiplier effect on the ability to engage people, to volunteer, to help people in our own community," Ponsky explained.
It also helps that the two organizations are run by brothers.
"Our community is a very giving community, not only financially but with their time, and we're going to be now providing one of the largest organizations assisting in the health care space," Dr. Lee Ponsky, founder of Medwish International, said.
The two charities have been working together for the last year to make sure the merger would work. Still ahead is deciding on a new name, and their official first joint effort is planned for this summer.
Medwish will continue delivering supplies around the world, but also in its own backyard.
"About three years ago, we started a pilot project to do local giving to try to look at certain types of supplies that just make sense, such as wheelchairs, crutches, hospital beds for people who are at home and just can't afford to get a bed that moves up and down," Lee Ponsky stated.
Two major projects ahead: They'll be building a mobile dental clinic, and they're also going to start providing care at the Cuyahoga County Juvenile Detention Center.
"It's kind of mind blowing that if you go to a federal penitentiary, you get access to health care," Zac Ponsky said. "But if you're in the juvenile detention center, you're not technically adjudicated, because you're still under your parent's custody, so the only option for care for most is to go to the emergency room. So we are partnering with the JDC to bring dental care and medical care inside the detention center.
There's also a separate pilot program that's ready to go, with the hope of inspiring young people to consider getting into the health care field.
"We'll be teaching the kids in there how to have this skill of making eye glasses, as well as a partnership with a laboratory service that we're working on for making dentures."
Both organizations survive on donations and the help of volunteers, and they're still looking for both to continue this mission.
"The biggest gaps have only gotten bigger, which is dental and vision care, and none of that has been responded to or solved at the federal level or state level," Zac Ponsky said.
"So we need to start it right at home, and while we do work locally and internationally, we need to try to partner with communities and find solutions of how we can be helpful to try to move the needle and reduce that difference so that people aren't dying based on their zip code, because those disparities shouldn't exist," Lee Ponsky added.