Leadership at AUA Surgical Center in Amarillo,
Texas, cites persistence as a key to maintaining a
PPE surplus. In the early days of the pandemic,
when supplies were at a premium, Micaela
Gomez, CST, the facility's point person for secur-
ing masks, canvassed local businesses for help —
and wound up getting masks
from a local auto body shop and
meat-cutting factory.
"There's a lot to be said for not
taking 'no' for an answer," says
Adam C. Johnson, BSN, RN, the
center's administrator. "Micaela
is so invested in managing PPE
levels that she takes regular
counts of our stock and turns
that information in to me."
AUA currently has a surplus,
which Mr. Johnson credits to hav-
ing frontline clinical workers,
rather than administrators, serv-
ing as point people for vendors.
These relationships are authentic,
he says, and when someone from
the front line tells vendors that
they truly need inventory, the
vendors are more likely to work
hard to deliver.
Proliance Eastside Surgery
Center in Kirkland, Wash., relies
on its outstanding working rela-
tionships with various vendors to
maintain adequate levels of PPE.
"The staff who work in our mate-
rials management department
have built personal relationships
with all the supply reps," says
Carmen M. Wilson, RN, BSN,
CIC, the center's director. "When
the pandemic hit and we called in
a favor, we weren't calling in a
favor as a customer, we were
calling it in as a friend."
Ms. Wilson also used some
old-fashioned ingenuity to solve a
bouffant hat supply problem. "At
one point, our bouffant hats were on back order,
so we bought disposable shower caps for patients
to wear," she says. "It served a dual role: The
patients had what they needed to wear, and it
gave them something to smile about when they
were in pre-op."
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