factured," says Dan Stannard, RN, CASC, adminis-
trator, at Red Hills Surgical Center, in Tallahassee,
Fla. "We decided it would be worth the money to
buy extra supplies in January and February — just
in case. That put us way ahead of the game when
the shortages hit."
Having proper PPE on hand is critical, but you
don't want to go overboard and create a stockpile
you'll never wind up never using. So what's the
sweet spot for purchasing? "We currently have
enough PPE to maintain a three- to five-week sup-
ply — but we're not stockpiling to have enough for
six months or a year," says Robert S. Bray, Jr., MD,
a board-certified neurological spine surgeon and
the CEO and founder of DISC Sports & Spine
Center in Newport Beach, Calif. "Stockpiling means
other facilities won't have the PPE they need when
they need it most."
Dr. Bray recommends making sure your main
supply chain provides adequate levels of PPE, but
also suggests having a couple back-up options avail-
able so you're not relying on a single vendor.
• Secure storage and rationing. Facilities
stretched PPE levels through the early months of
the pandemic by limiting the amount of staff who
had access to it — and rationing it as effectively as
possible. "One of the most important things we did
was put our PPE in a secure location that has limit-
ed access," says Cherokee Gonzalez, RN, BSN,
director at Florida Medical Center in Tampa.
"Some of the charge nurses are responsible for
rationing it to the staff. One location has everything
but the masks."
To manage mask supplies, Ms. Gonzalez took the
secure location concept a step further. "They're kept
in my office, which now doubles as a PPE distribu-
tion center," she says. "I'm surrounded by boxes that
might cave in on me, but it's what we have to do."
Harsh as it may sound, locking your PPE away
from staff is a strategy Mr. DeConciliis agrees with.
1 2 • S U P P L E M E N T
T O O U T P A T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • J A N U A R Y 2 0 2 1
Committed Secure Pricing through 2021!
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Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
• 100% US Made and Controlled Raw Materials
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