each of its four facilities
can accommodate per
day based on PPE burn
rates and the additional
time it takes to terminal-
ly clean ORs between
cases.
"Surgeons want what
they want when they
want it," says Dr. Marx.
"We're trying to accom-
modate all their
requests."
Upstate's surgeons
are working through a
backlog of approxi-
mately 1,500 cases, a
reasonable amount
when it's broken down
across several facilities
and specialties. "We expect to be back to normal capacity some-
time between August and January, depending on the incidence of
COVID-19 in our community and possible state restrictions that
would require us to slow down," says Dr. Marx.
• Proper PPE. All staff members at LSDC are required to wear an
N95 mask while in the facility. Each worker is assigned five masks.
Individual masks are tagged with the employee's name and the num-
bers one to five, which is the number of times the masks can be safely
disinfected with UV-C light. At the end of each day, staff members
remove their masks, tick off one of the numbers to keep track of how
J U N E 2 0 2 0 • O U T P A T I E N T S U R G E R Y . N E T • 4 1
HOT COMMODITY Lakeland Surgical & Diagnostic Center disinfects N95s up to
five times each to preserve supplies of the sought-after masks.
Nikki
Williams,
RN,
CNOR
