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Partnership for Quality Medical Donations (PQMD) Announces Grant from Johnson & Johnson

Grant to support evaluation of hygiene kit distribution programs

August 27, 2019 (Annapolis, Md.) – Partnership for Quality Medical Donations (PQMD) announces the organization has received a grant from Johnson & Johnson. The grant will support evaluating hygiene kit distribution programs.

When a crisis strikes, access to personal hygiene items is critical to survival. Following an emergency like a hurricane, flood, earthquake or other disaster, personal hygiene products are important for safeguarding public health, dignity and well-being. Hygiene kit distribution is a widely employed strategy by nonprofit organizations and companies during disaster response efforts. However, the usefulness of hygiene kit contents and timeliness of hygiene kit distribution is under-evaluated.

PQMD is leading a collaborative approach to ensure input from a diverse group of stakeholders including kit-beneficiaries, health care providers, non-profit organizations, corporations, agencies and public health researchers. Through a series of working meetings, a new collective impact coalition will develop an evaluation strategy, pilot methodologies and validate evaluation instruments. In partnership with PQMD, Tufts University is leading the research for the development and piloting of the evaluation instruments. These steps are considered the first phase of an intended two-phase project. The second phase will include an evaluation at scale of hygiene kits to inform best practices.

“PQMD is uniquely placed to leverage collective experience and new inquiry in kitting practices,” PQMD Senior Director of Programs Juliemarie Vander Burg said. “In a recent study of our members, we found that over 82% of respondents engage in kitting activities and together distribute over 700,000 hygiene kits.”

“Hygiene kits provide urgent supplies in times of crisis, but also they provide opportunity for employee engagement,” Kim Keller, Johnson & Johnson’s Senior Manager, Disaster Response, Resilience and Product Donations, said. “The depth of PQMD’s hygiene kit evaluation project will include health care providers, companies, and kit recipients, and we look forward to the results.”

“We are grateful for Johnson & Johnson’s support of PQMD as we collect end-user feedback and multiple perspectives of hygiene kit significance,” PQMD Executive Director Elizabeth “EJ” Ashbourne said. “Our kitting evaluation project will build evidence to support people receiving what they really need in times of crisis.”

About PQMD

PQMD is a dynamic alliance and global network between nonprofit and corporate organizations leading in the development and championing of guidelines on quality for the donation policies and practices; delivering of urgent care in disaster situations and delivering life-saving products and service to at-risk and chronically underserved populations. The organization’s beginnings go back to 1996, when an informal alliance of several non-governmental organizations (NGOs), pharmaceutical companies, and medical device firms joined together to develop guidance regarding medical donations. To learn more, visit www.pqmd.org. Please contact Juliemarie Vander Burg ([email protected]) to learn more about the PQMD hygiene kit kitting evaluation initiative.

About Johnson & Johnson

At Johnson & Johnson, we believe good health is the foundation of vibrant lives, thriving communities and forward progress. That’s why for more than 130 years, we have aimed to keep people well at every age and every stage of life. Today, as the world’s largest and most broadly-based health care company, we are committed to using our reach and size for good. We strive to improve access and affordability, create healthier communities, and put a healthy mind, body and environment within reach of everyone, everywhere. We are blending our heart, science and ingenuity to profoundly change the trajectory of health for humanity.

 

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