Agency is making offer to 'Santa-tize' health equipment

By hand, a wheelchair takes 20 or 30 minutes to clean. For the disabled, it's a task difficult to complete independently.

Imagine, Tiffany Johnston said, if in just five or 10 minutes you were able to run the chair through an automated car wash or laundry machine. That's essentially what equipment will do at Walton Options.

This summer the disabilities service agency, where Ms. Johnston is executive director, bought two Hub Scrubs for $9,000 to clean and sanitize donated and recycled medical equipment.

For the holidays, they're allowing the public access to those machines in events coined "Get Santa-tized." Santa is on hand as a crew inspects, cleans and sanitizes non-electric devices. The cost is an unwrapped toy for a needy child or a $5 donation.

When the equipment is loaded into the machine, high-pressure nozzles spray hot water along with a cleaning and sanitizing solution.

Regular cleanings help preserve the equipment's life span, said Sam Creech, the director of information technology at Walton Options.

"We are able to clean and recycle many pieces for durable medical equipment that would have ended up as waste in our land fields," he said.

"In most cases we are able to clean and redistribute devices for less than 20 cents on the dollar of what a new item would cost.

"This means Walton Options can serve five times the number of consumers by employing the recycle approach."

The center is also training the disabled to use the machines, one of which will be taken to area nursing homes and hospitals to serve patients there.

"We hope to create at least 10 to 20 full- or part-time jobs with our Hub Scrub endeavors," Mr. Creech said.

Reach Kelly Jasper at (706) 823-3552 or kelly.jasper@augustachronicle.com.