A hospital bed is left behind after nearly every home hospice, and it is wanted by families who cannot get one through insurance, but the two rarely meet, because a bed weighs several hundred pounds and the family clearing the room has no truck. The organizations that can use one are local loan closets and a few national programs, and the whole problem comes down to who moves it. This page covers who takes hospital beds and how to get one out of the house.
Most counties have a loan closet: a nonprofit, church, or senior services program that lends durable medical equipment free to residents and takes donations to stock it. Hospital beds are the item loan closets most often lack and most often need, because a bed is what lets a family bring someone home. Great Lakes Loan Closets, which coordinates programs across Michigan, Wisconsin, northern Indiana, and northern Illinois, gives the standard advice for finding one anywhere: search your county and state with the phrase loan closet or medical equipment lending, then call before bringing anything, because capacity and pickup vary from one closet to the next. Equipment must be clean and in good working order; a bed with a broken motor or rusted rails is a safety problem for the next family.
Disease organizations run some of the best-organized equipment programs in the country. ALS United chapters, the ALS Association's regional successors, operate equipment loan programs that lend hospital beds, lifts, and wheelchairs to people with ALS at no cost, and several pick equipment up when it is no longer needed. Multiple sclerosis societies, muscular dystrophy programs, and cancer support organizations run similar closets. Even if the person who used the bed did not have the condition, these programs accept beds that meet their standards, and they are the most likely to arrange transport.
The two national medical surplus organizations both take hospital beds from individuals. Project C.U.R.E. lists beds among the home health items it accepts, asks donors to drop off at one of its distribution centers where possible because its trucks are committed to hospitals, and will try to arrange collection when drop-off is impossible; all of its warehouses issue tax receipts. MedShare accepts new or gently used durable medical equipment through its donation offer form. Both ship equipment to clinics abroad and to safety-net clinics at home. For a bed, either is realistic only if you are near a facility or can arrange transport yourself. Details in where to donate medical equipment.
If the bed came through hospice, it may not be yours to donate; rented equipment goes back to the supplier, who collects it. If the family bought the bed, the hospice agency's social worker is still the best first call, because hospice and home health agencies know which families in the area are waiting for a bed and which local closet has room. Some agencies maintain their own small equipment pools for patients whose insurance is slow.
Many states fund an assistive technology reuse program that refurbishes donated equipment and matches it with residents, often with pickup for large items. Massachusetts runs REquipment, which accepts donations of durable medical equipment and lists reuse resources statewide, and its state government publishes guidance on donating assistive technology. Search your state plus assistive technology reuse or durable medical equipment reuse; the program is usually housed in a disability services agency or an independent living center.
Last updated September 2026. Errors: [email protected]
Insurance covers a hospital bed for a defined need and collects it when the need ends, which works for people inside the system and leaves out everyone whose coverage is slow, partial, or absent. Loan closets fill that gap with donated equipment, and beds are the item they can least afford to buy and most often have to turn families away for. A working bed donated to a closet typically goes back out within days, and cycles through several families over its life, which is a better outcome than any other destination on this page.
A hospital bed rarely leaves alone. Walkers, wheelchairs, commodes, shower chairs, and lifts usually go with it, and the same loan closets and programs take all of them; our guides to medical equipment, mobility scooters, and unused medical supplies cover the rest of what a home hospice leaves behind.