Relief Share is a Florida-based charity on a mission to recover and redistribute surplus medical equipment to those in need around the world. It all started in 2004, when high school teacher Dan Carella and his wife Megan discovered that US hospitals had billions of dollars worth of surplus medical equipment and supplies, most of which couldn’t be reused within the US but could be life-saving elsewhere.
Fast forward 25 years, and with the support of Orca Scan, Relief Share has cut inventory processing times by more than 80% 🤯
The Challenge
Relief Share works tirelessly to provide donations of surplus medical equipment to those in need, but their biggest challenge? Manual inventory that was becoming increasingly time intensive.
When creating their first shipment to the front line in Ukraine in 2022, the process from receiving donations to sending it overseas took months. From sourcing and transporting donations (which could often be a 2-hour round trip!), to equipment checking and then manually recording each item, including the barcode number, lot numbers, photos and expiry dates into an Excel sheet.
I would sit down at my computer, open the photos, and manually upload this into our inventory spreadsheet. As you can imagine, that was very time-consumingMegan CarellaCommunity Outreach Director- Relief Share
Each donation could include anything from band aids to surgical equipment, so Dan, Megan, and their volunteers would first sort everything into categories, like respiratory supplies, before recording the details. At first, they asked volunteers to take photos of each item, which Megan would then painstakingly review and enter into an Excel spreadsheet 🤯 , but over time, this evolved into a Google Forms system, where volunteers would jot down the details manually before transferring everything into Excel.
The process was slow, but they knew how invaluable it was for those receiving the donations to have an accurate inventory list of everything that was included in the delivery, so the effort was worth it.
We provided donations to one doctor who’s a plastic surgeon, and she was working on the front line helping people who’ve had amputations in UkraineDan CarellaPresidentRelief Share
Relief Share needed to find an efficient inventory management system that would help automate this process, so they could spend more time collecting donations and sourcing charities to send supplies to.
A little bit of context
When Dan started Relief Share in 2004, he would load up his van with donations from a local hospital and a few students would help him organise and log the items on a Friday afternoon.
As donations grew, so did the number of volunteers. What started with four to five students helping every Friday, turned into a grassroots movement with local schools and universities including University of Florida, University of Central Florida, and University of South Florida, joining in to support the cause.
If you’re as organised as possible and as professional as possible with your volunteers, then you get more volunteers, you get more supportDan CarellaPresidentRelief Share
To keep up with the demand, Dan and Megan began hosting group events and crowd-sourcing sessions to organise donations and prepare shipments on a monthly basis.
But even with extra hands, the manual data processing slowed them down. So when, in 2024, Dan and Megan found themselves stuck in an airport during a delay, they started searching for solutions that could help speed up and automate these processes. They discovered Orca Scan… and haven’t looked back 💛
Having Orca Scan makes it easier because when we scan the item, we can put it directly into a box for shipping. Rather than them going from point A to point B to point C, they’re just going directly inMegan CarellaCommunity Outreach Director- Relief Share
The Solution
Our Medical Device Tracking template has helped Relief Share cut down their inventory processes by 80% 👏 This means they’re able to spend more time collecting donations from hospitals, and working with volunteers to get items scanned, logged and shipped more efficiently.
We just recently got two large pallets of supplies off to Tanzania through another volunteer contact of ours. Because of Orca Scan, we were able to inventory and box the items in much less timeMegan CarellaCommunity Outreach Director- Relief Share
Once all equipment has been organised at crowd-sourcing events, volunteers use the Orca Scan mobile app to scan items directly into the inventory sheet as they pack. With each item that is scanned, Orca will automatically extract all the key information into their sheet, including:
- GS1 barcodes
- Manufacturer
- Lot Number
- Description
- Reference Number
- Expiration Date
Any duplicate items only have to be scanned once (rather than manually entering each one like before) and if needed, they can also capture photos, or upload any attachments relevant to the items, to keep a visual record of what’s inside every shipment. Super handy when some shipments can hold over 100 items per box!
It’s just an enormous time saver. There’s no comparison. It’s like night and dayDan CarellaPresidentRelief Share
This inventory list is then exported to Excel and shared with the receiving hospital or charity to show them exactly what they can expect in their delivery.
Has it been successful?
When the Orca Customer Success Team learned about the incredible work Relief Share is doing, and the impact it was having, they knew that they wanted to help. The team donated 50 additional user accounts to support their mission, and make it easier for even more volunteers to scan items and build inventory lists for shipments.
With these extra users, Dan and Megan can now give long-standing volunteers their own charity email accounts, giving them direct access to the sheet without needing to share account logins.
It’s a small change that helps volunteers feel like a permanent part of the team, and recognises the time and commitment they’ve given to supporting Relief Share. This has also allowed Dan to set up satellite sites around Florida, from volunteers’ homes to university campuses, meaning even more shipments can be prepared, and the team still has visibility.
Whoever opens the box will have a hard copy inventory that we can print out from what we’ve scanned in, to see what exactly is in this box to be usedDan CarellaPresidentRelief Share
Plus, thanks to Orca Scan’s simple implementation, volunteers of all ages have been able to learn how to use the app on their smartphones or tablets, scan and log the items with minimal training required!
Since introducing Orca Scan last year, Relief Share has seen an increase in donations, and thanks to their new solutions, they’ve been able to send more frequent shipments. In fact, they recently sent three cargo containers of supplies to Ukraine and are now working with another charity to expand deliveries via a nearby shipping port.
It’s remarkable to open up Orca Scan and suddenly see how much has been entered on the sheet or how much has been scanned, so we can see they are doing itDan CarellaPresidentRelief Share
Thank you
To Dan and Megan, thank you for sharing the incredible story of Relief Share with us. We’re so proud to support your mission to deliver life-saving aid to those in need around the world 💛 We can’t wait to see what happens next.
