Indianapolis firm responds with aid for Haiti
Released: 5/20/2010
Employees of BremnerDuke Healthcare Real Estate and its parent firm, Duke Realty Corp., provided the space, materials, labor and cash needed to ship food and medical supplies
INDIANAPOLIS, May 20, 2010 – Indianapolis is about 1,700 miles geographically and a world away economically from Port-au-Prince, Haiti. So what could an Indianapolis-based healthcare real estate firm do to help after a 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck the impoverished island nation on Jan. 12?
Plenty, it turns out.
Thanks to the company’s existing program to enhance healthcare in developing nations, employees of BremnerDuke Healthcare Real Estate and the firm’s parent company, Duke Realty Corp., were able to respond particularly quickly to the crisis. The firm provided the warehouse space, materials, labor and financial assistance necessary to construct and transport more than two dozen shipping containers of sorely needed food and medical supplies.
It is estimated that up to 300,000 people lost their lives in the Haiti quake, although we may never know the precise death toll due to the mass burials and poor recordkeeping that followed. But what is known is that an estimated 1 million Haitians were left homeless – many of them injured and most without adequate medical care.
Fortunately, BremnerDuke was uniquely positioned to help. In 2008, the healthcare real estate firm had established a medical equipment recycling program called CareLink. Thanks to the experience and relationships developed through that program during the previous two years, the firm was able to act particularly swiftly to assist with relief efforts for Haiti.
“Through our day-to-day work as a healthcare real estate developer, we frequently encounter hospitals and physician practices that, in the process of relocating or expanding, have decided to upgrade their medical equipment,” explains David Martin, a BremnerDuke Vice President and Team Leader of the CareLink program. “At the same time, hospitals and clinics in developing nations often struggle to provide adequate care due to a lack of resources.
“We began to ask ourselves what we could do to make an impact on these underserved communities and assist our clients in fulfilling their organizational missions or green initiatives. The result was CareLink, which provides a bridge between our clients with functional medical equipment to donate and existing agencies, such as the TriMedx Foundation, that deliver medical equipment, training and support to remote destinations around the world. Our team educates clients about giving opportunities, helps identify potential donations and assists in the transfer of viable equipment to our distributing partners.
“We’re not asking dozens of people to go to Africa for a week,” Mr. Martin emphasizes, “We’re simply asking for our employees to raise their consciousness and to ask our clients what they are planning to do with their old equipment.”
During the previous two years, CareLink had facilitated the shipment of medical equipment to Mexico, Honduras, the Philippines, Ghana and Guyana. Thus, the resources and relationships were already in place for BremnerDuke to respond quickly to participate in relief efforts coordinated by the TriMedx Foundation and the Northwest Haiti Christian Mission to benefit the people of Haiti.
During the week of Feb. 8, Chris Brown, Duke Realty’s Indianapolis Maintenance Operations Manager, gathered a team of nine company volunteers to construct 26 shipping containers to hold medical and food supplies. The following week, more than 50 employees, family members and friends sorted and packed food and medical supplies collected by TriMedx from church collection sites across the country. Duke Realty temporarily donated 1,500 square feet of warehouse space in Indianapolis as a staging area to collect, sort and pack the supplies into the containers.
Cameron Mayhill, Development Director for the Northwest Haiti Christian Mission, says he was overwhelmed by the response.
“I couldn’t have imagined the help that we received from Duke – donated warehouse space, sorting tables, construction guys to build crates... as well as the countless volunteers that worked over the three day time period,” Mr. Mayhill says. “Honestly, we couldn’t have done it without them.”
The packed crates were transported to Cape Canaveral, Fla., via a semi-trailer truck where they were loaded onto a shrimp boat for shipment to Haiti on Feb. 24.
“It might seem a little odd to use a shrimp boat,” Mr. Martin notes, “but it was the fastest and most efficient way to get the supplies to the island.” On March 9, Northwest Haiti Christian Mission confirmed their arrival in Haiti.
In addition to volunteer assistance, Duke Realty made a $25,000 donation to the American Red Cross. That donation, along with matched employee donations, totaled more than $30,000 raised in financial assistance for the quake victims.
“When we established CareLink, the idea was to leverage our relationships with U.S. healthcare providers to help address the ongoing healthcare needs of developing nations,” Mr. Martin says. “We never dreamed of needing to deal with a sudden crisis situation of the magnitude of the Haiti earthquake.
“But when the disaster struck we quickly realized that, unlike many relief organizations, we already had all the tools in place to respond rapidly. We felt like we had an obligation to act, and we are just pleased that we were able to do our small part to contribute to the overall relief effort.”
About BremnerDuke Healthcare
BremnerDuke Healthcare Real Estate supports hospitals and physician groups with development, ownership, leasing and management services. A division of Duke Realty Corp., BremnerDuke has been building healthcare facilities for more than 20 years with projects ranging from small medical office buildings to large healthcare centers with diagnostics, oncology centers and surgery centers. BremnerDuke, formerly known as Bremner Healthcare, was acquired by Duke Realty in February 2007 as a result of Bremner’s proven success and creativity in developing healthcare real estate. To find out more, please visit www.bremnerduke.com.
Contact: Rachel Ferguson | Email