As coronavirus spreads, Triangle hospitals scramble to stockpile protective equipment
Ask leaders of the Triangle’s big three hospital systems if their employees have enough masks and gowns and other equipment to protect them against coronavirus and the answer now is yes.
But ask them if they’ll have enough personal protective equipment, or PPE, next week or next month and they aren’t sure, which is what has them worried.
WakeMed has enough PPE to meet its current demand, says Dr. Chris DeRienzo, the health system’s chief medical officer. But use of PPE has grown by as much as 500% in the past week.
“That is the utilization increase now, and it’s hard to know where there’s an end in sight,” DeRienzo said in an interview Monday. “Even if I’ve gone up five times, does that mean I’ll need double that much next week, or exactly that or will I need quadruple that?”
That uncertainty has hospitals scrambling to bulk up their stores of PPE, through their usual suppliers, government stockpiles and even donations. They’ve also taken steps to conserve what they have, by postponing non-urgent surgeries and other procedures and creating standalone respiratory diagnostic centers that make more efficient use of PPE.
Duke Health, WakeMed and UNC Health all say they have adequate supplies for the time being. That’s even with increased use that began in January with an active flu season and has continued as the number of suspected and confirmed cases of COVID-19 grow across the state.
The Duke Health system, which includes three hospitals in Durham and Wake counties, is using surgical masks at a rate of about 600,000 per month, up from 350,000 in December, said Katie Galbraith, president of Duke Regional Hospital.
“Extrapolate that out over all of the hospitals and health systems across the country,” Galbraith said in an interview. “That is why you’re hearing us sound the alarm for the need to carefully manage our supply.”
At UNC, the use of PPE was already higher this winter than it had been in five years because of the flu, said Christian Lawson, director of emergency services. It has nearly doubled in the last month, Lawson said.
The challenge is predicting where it will go from here, he said.
“We’re attempting to forecast based on what you saw in China, Washington State and Northern Italy, who are a few weeks ahead of us,” Lawson said in an interview. “We need to understand what our burn rate of PPE is, and if the volumes grow, what does that burn rate look like.”
Both UNC and WakeMed have asked for and received PPE from government stockpiles. As of March 17, the Strategic National Stockpile, overseen by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, says it has shipped more than 333 tons of cargo from warehouses around the country to help screen for coronavirus at U.S. airports and to help states fulfill local needs for PPE.
Mike Sprayberry, the state’s director of emergency management, said his department is working to obtain gowns, masks, gloves, face shields and other PPE for health care workers and first responders.
“That’s our top priority” at the Emergency Operations Center, Sprayberry said during a press conference Monday. “A team of 24 airmen from the N.C. Air National Guard are working to help receive, warehouse and ship those supplies as they are delivered to us.”
Manufacturers ramp up production
Adding to the uncertainty about the future supply of gloves, gowns and masks is that so much of it is made in China, where manufacturing and distribution have been interrupted by the serious coronavirus outbreak there. Some hospital administrators worry that will aggravate shortages later in the outbreak, in May or June.
Some U.S. companies are trying to fill the gap. Honeywell says it is adding 500 workers to its plant in Rhode Island to expand production of respiratory masks worn by health care workers when they treat COVID-19 patients, known as the N95 mask. 3M says it has doubled its worldwide production of the masks since the outbreak began.
And in North Carolina, Parkdale Mills Inc. of Gastonia is working with companies such as Hanesbrand and Fruit of the Loom to fulfill a federal contract to make surgical masks at factories that normally make T-shirts and socks.
Shortages of PPE in some parts of the country have helped focus national attention on the problem. Doctors, nurses and other health care workers have highlighted the need for more supplies on social media, using the hashtag #GetMePPE.
The spotlight on the issue has encouraged people to try to help through donations. Habitat for Humanity and construction firm Clancy & Theys delivered new N95 masks to UNC Rex Hospital last week, said spokesman Alan Wolf. Epic Games, the Cary-based video game maker, managed to buy 2,000 N95 masks to donate to Rex as well, Wolf said.
UNC Health and WakeMed put out a call for donations this weekend, both to bolster their supplies and to formalize the process, to keep people from just showing up at a hospital with boxes of mask or gloves. See details below.
Duke Health also accepts donations at its warehouse at 100 Golden Drive, off Neal Road in Durham, from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Its top priorities are unused N95 masks and surgical/ear loop masks “that are new and sealed in their original packaging.”
UNC Health indicated that it would be willing to accept hand-made masks, though Wolf said it is still working with “our infectious control experts to make sure they’re meeting standards.” WakeMed and Duke both say they’re not taking anything home-made.
“At this point, we don’t have the acute need for those,” Galbraith said. “It’s really important to us that we maintain the integrity of our supplies.”
But Galbraith and WakeMed’s DeRienzo said the offers of support are heartening. If people can’t donate PPE, they say, there’s lots of other ways to support hospitals and health care workers, including donating blood, donating to local food banks and offering to help health care workers they know with meals, child care and other needs.
And they can heed government warnings about social distancing. The main reason behind the closing of schools and businesses and the canceling of events is to try to slow the spread of the coronavirus — to flatten the curve of infections — so that hospitals and the health care system won’t get overwhelmed.
Because COVID-19 emerged elsewhere first, North Carolina has been able to act earlier in the outbreak, which may mean hospitals here won’t need the supplies they’re stockpiling, said DeRienzo.
“But I don’t know what the outcome of that is going to be,” he said. “I’m hopeful that will deflect our curve away from California and New York. I can hope for that, but I can’t plan for that.”
WakeMed asks wishing to donate unopened PPE supplies to email WakeMed at info@wakemed.org with details. The WakeMed Foundation is also taking monetary donations for COVID-19 response. For more information, go to www.wakemed.org/covid-19-donation-page.
UNC Health has established drop-off sites and times for PPE donations. For information, go to www.unchealthcare.org/coronavirus/ways-to-help/.
This story was originally published March 23, 2020 at 5:05 PM with the headline "As coronavirus spreads, Triangle hospitals scramble to stockpile protective equipment."
