Most of the nurses who work in the hospital's surgery center have
shifted to three 12-hour shifts per week. Some are now working
night shifts, and others have been trained to administer coronavirus
tests in a tented testing site on the hospital's property. Other surgery
center staffers are delivering meal trays to hospital floors and pro-
viding other help as needed.
"The surgical team is doing whatever we can to support our co-
workers on the other floors," says Ms. Solomon. "We will get through
this together."
Supply allocation
A shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE) has been a national
crisis for COVID-19 responders during the pandemic. Boston Out-
Patient Surgical Suites and other facilities who use a management
company to conduct their business operations have avoided that prob-
lem for now. First, less gear is needed because so many facilities have
canceled the bulk of their cases. But many, such as Boston Out-Patient,
have been put on an allocation program by manufacturers to receive
the average amount of PPE they would order in a month.
"Having a management company helps in many areas at a time like
this," says Mr. DeConciliis. "We even donated some of our PPE to a
large hospital system nearby."
He's trying to organize a drive for other ASCs to donate surplus sup-
plies of PPE, but there hasn't been a lot of buy-in. "Everyone wants to
hold on to what they have," says Mr. DeConciliis. "We're doing what
we can. Our staff is even looking into whether we can repurpose blue
wrap into masks."
A clinical manager at an Arizona hospital who spoke on the condi-
tion of anonymity says supplies of PPE are holding steady for now,
but the hospital's administration noticed the suspicious disappearance
of N95 masks. "Supplies of PPE are now under lock and key," says the
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