Medical supply shortages are worsening and one in five eldercare facilities will be left empty-handed if dramatic conservation efforts aren’t made, says a leading industry advocate.
A “perfect storm” of events has sapped supplies of personal protective equipment – particularly masks and gowns. At current usage rates, 20% of facilities nationwide will run out of PPEs in the next week, and 20% more the following week, according to David Gifford, M.D., chief medical officer for the American Healthcare American Health Care Association / National Center For Assisted Living.
Demand has skyrocketed as care providers race to keep coronavirus in check, complicated by a manufacturing shutdown in China. And while some relief will come from federal strategic stockpiles, there simply is not enough stock available from this or conventional sources to supply every U.S. nursing home until manufacturing picks back up, warned Gifford, who spoke along with AHCA/NCAL President and CEO Mark Parkinson in a Wednesday press briefing.
Facilities will need to find creative solutions to responsibly conserve masks and gowns, and can look to newly updated guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for help, Gifford said. The agency’s Strategies for Optimizing the Supply of PPE web page includes instructions for conventional, contingent and crises-level use of N95 respirators, face masks, gowns and eyewear, along with a detailed checklist for conserving respirators.
While most AHCA/NCAL members currently have supplies on hand, some have come close to running short. At least one hard-hit operator said it has resorted to using makeshift equipment; using garbage bags for gowns and making its own masks, Gifford said. Others have confirmed that they are already restricting use, such as limiting masks to one per shift.
The industry is being tested, said Parkinson, and will need to make some sacrifices on the scale of those made in WWII. “We’re facing a threat of that magnitude,” he concluded.
The organization has meanwhile called for healthcare providers, manufacturing facilities and others who have excess masks, gowns and gloves to consider donating them to those most in need, such as nursing facilities. Federal agencies have responded to AHCA/NCAL’s request to make the shortage a priority issue, and some states have made early efforts to help curb the supply problem, Gifford added. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine (R), for example, has called for donations from dental providers, who are being urged to perform only emergency care during the outbreak.
Recent evidence of efforts from all sectors to help facilities bridge the supply gap is cause for optimism, said Gifford.
