KC HELP
The Knights Community Hospital Equipment Lend Program
Blog Intro Here
Jerry Rhoads, founder and chief executive officer of KC Help, explains how the Pasco nonprofit sanitizes donated medical equipment before preparing it for area residents who lack insurance or Medicare coverage for wheelchairs, walkers and other home medical items.
Jerry Rhoads, founder and chief executive officer of KC Help, explains how the Pasco nonprofit sanitizes donated medical equipment before preparing it for area residents who lack insurance or Medicare coverage for wheelchairs, walkers and other home medical items.
A $40,000 private donation is helping a Pasco nonprofit and the people it serves stand a little taller.
An unidentified supporter contributed the money to the Knights Community Hospital Equipment Lend Program, better known as KC Help, through the Three Rivers Community Foundation.
The donation supports KC Help’s mission to help the most vulnerable TriCitians — people who need wheelchairs and other durable medical equipment that isn’t paid for by insurance or Medicare. It serves about 200 people each month and has exported its model across the Northwest and to Mexico.
KC Help spun out of the Tri-Cities Chaplaincy House in the mid-1990s after beginning as a group of volunteers who refitted homes to accommodate ill residents and their medical gear.
Jerry Rhoads, founder and chief executive officer, said it branched into durable medical equipment when it spied a gap — insurance and Medicare wouldn’t always pay for the equipment people needed. It tested the idea with a pilot in 1996.
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