Advancing Global Health and Sustainability
Obras Sociales del Santo Hermano Pedro, Antigua Guatemala
MedSurplus Standards
Since its introduction, the MedSurplus Alliance Code of Conduct and Donation Standards has guided leading organizations in responsibly transforming surplus medical products into life-saving resources. Covering every step from intake to distribution, these standards set the benchmark for quality accountability — and underpin the MSA Accreditation Program.
History and Background
Since its initial publication in 2013, the MedSurplus Alliance Code of Conduct and Donation Standards has established best practices for responsibly receiving, sorting, repairing, packaging, and distributing surplus medical products. It also serves as the foundation for the MSA Accreditation Program.
As MedSurplus Alliance approached its tenth anniversary, it undertook a comprehensive, two-year review of the Code of Conduct. This process engaged a broad range of stakeholders across the MedSurplus sector, including MSA members, as well as standards and accreditation experts. The effort was guided by the MSA Standards and Accreditation Committee, with additional leadership and technical expertise from Lon Berkely, former Project Director at The Joint Commission.
The current 2023 revision of Code of Conduct builds on this strong foundation, enhancing clarity, strengthening alignment with current practices, and ensuring that each standard is practical, measurable, and relevant for today’s global health environment.
Code of Conduct & Donation Standards
Click the section titles for the full section content, including standards and performance elements.
An effective organization is a legal entity with a governance and operational structure committed to sustainable programming, integrity, excellence, and organizational transparency in serving qualified recipients without discrimination.
Through ongoing communications with recipient organizations, the organization can not only effectively coordinate and collaborate with them throughout the donation process, but can partner with them in the organization's process to monitor and evaluate the quality, appropriateness, and effectiveness of all their actions. Continuous process evaluations are used to ensure that the organization's actions taken are effective or, if not, lead to an improvement.
To eliminate unsolicited and unnecessary donations and avoid waste, donations should only be made based on an expressed need at the request of the in-country partner and after a thorough needs assessment confirms that the donation is also appropriate for the setting.
Emergency situations require having an expedited process for vetting an organization's potential new partners and recipient organizations, as well as the recipient organization's requests for products. This is to ensure that donations occur in the same manner as non-emergency shipments for consumables, medical equipment, pharmaceuticals, and medical devices.
If the quality of an item is unacceptable in the donor country, it is also unacceptable as a donation. Donated products that do not meet stated quality standards or have been recalled are not to be distributed. Click on the title above to see the complete section.
The appropriate method, location, and timing for the disposal of all donated products by both the organization and recipient organization, especially those that are hazardous, minimizes costs, reduces risks, and contributes to responsible environmental practices.
For effective product shipping and transporting of all products, the following six components must be considered: proper packaging; sufficient storage space and access; means of transportation; efficient staging and loading; receiving customs clearance; and product security.