Vending machine outside of local hospital offers condoms, pregnancy tests & more; First of its kind in Pennsylvania

(WHTM) — Two major health care systems have teamed up to provide easy access to personal care and life-saving products.

The Health To Go vending machine is outside of the emergency department of UPMC Harrisburg, and it’s one of the first in the state. Among the items in the machine are pregnancy tests, male and female condoms, naloxone, and fentanyl test strips. All of them, free.

Penn State Health partnered with UPMC, to provide quick and anonymous access to products that meet the needs of individual communities.

“Talking with community leaders, what do you think you need in these machines, what would you like to see there, and also, what is not offensive, because there are some items some communities don’t want to see in a vending machine,” Penn State Health Physician Doctor Aleksandra Zgierska said.

“So a lot of the packaging is within these envelopes, very nondescript, like me going up, grabbing this, and nobody really knows what you are grabbing from the vending machine,” Penn State Health Family Medicine Doctor Alice Zhang said.

The vending machine also detects when supplies need to be re-filled.

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