"Pull your surplus out of your
general storage area and lock it
up so people don't use too much
of it at once," he says.
• Responsible reuse. Much
has been said of the reuse of
N95s during the pandemic, a
strategy the CDC itself endorsed
due to nationwide shortages. Of
course, the agency's guidelines
on the reuse of N95s are meant
to be followed to the letter
(osmag.net/QQHju2). Limited
reuse is permitted when there is
a known shortage of masks after
conventional and contingency
capacity strategies have been
implemented, according to the
CDC. The CDC says five N95
masks can be issued to individ-
ual staff members for reuse. Staff
members can wear one mask per
day and store it in a breathable
paper bag with a minimum of
five days between uses, accord-
ing to the CDC, which recom-
mends limiting the number of
repeated donnings to no more
than five per mask.
Employing the five-mask allot-
ment per employee is how Mr.
Stannard rationed his facility's
supplies. "Staff members used
one mask per day, which allowed
each mask to have seven days
between each use, a time period
that our infection control consult-
ant and infection control commit-
tee agreed was sufficient to allow
any virus particles to dissipate,"
he says. Each mask was used five
times before it was replaced,
unless it was visibly soiled or
misshapen, in which case it was
immediately replaced.
• Networking with vendors.
1 4 • 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
Chemo Gowns
& Other PPE
Visit our website at
www.blickman.com
Chemotherapy, isolation,
protection, and surgical
gowns.
Bouffants & shoe covers
3-ply and N95 masks
Face Shields
Goggles
Blickman has a wide offering
of PPE:
Email us: info@blickman.com
The National Institute for
Occupational Safety and
Health (NIOSH) created a PPE
Tracker app that allows facili-
ties to calculate their average
PPE consumption rate and
estimate how many days of
inventory they have left based
on their current supply levels
(osmag.net/Z8cDHo). You can
download the data and email
PPE-level reports to staff.
NIOSH also offers strategies to
optimize supplies of gloves,
eye protection, gowns, face-
masks and N95 respirators
(osmag.net/5HMCbd).
Helpful
Resources
