Have any facilities out there experienced supply shortages due to the coronavirus? We've been regularly running out of surgical masks, supposedly due to the epidemic; the wonky replacements we've been using are pretty ridiculous (plus uncomfortable), and even those are starting to run low, too. It seems hilariously ironic to me that we're short on surgical masks, seeing as they don't actually protect against coronavirus...the people who are buying them up aren't even benefiting from them, and consequently hospitals that actually need them are running short.
If/when the virus spreads to other countries (including the US), I'm sure the shortages will only get worse. I'm personally not super excited about the thought of spending time in an N-95 respirator, although I'm fortunate that exposure in my specialty would be pretty unlikely.
It reminds me a bit of the supply shortages that happened in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria back in 2017 following the shut-down of affected medial equipment manufacturing plants in Puerto Rico. Our facility was running low on essentials like normal saline for months (I remember we even got an email that said not to start patients on IV fluids unless we absolutely had to). It's pretty crazy to think that hospitals can literally run out of something as basic as face masks or saline due to international disasters.
My hospital uses Max Air Helmets and is telling us that we have to share dlc shields ?
Ugh, that sounds awful.
My unit is an open bay, and when we do sterile procedures (line placements, dressing changes, etc.) the entire bay has to wear hats/masks (family members included). A single dressing change might require up to 15+ masks, so we're burning through them pretty quickly. We've even had to postpone certain procedures while people ran around to other units trying to track down enough masks.
These events were caused by crooked politicians and later discovered hidden some where.
I thought it was the other way around--medical relief supplies from the US were found in warehouses and never made it to Puerto Rican citizens, not that the medical supplies manufactured in Puerto Rico got stuck in warehouses and never made it to the US. The former would make more sense to me than the latter (since suppliers would likely stop production of US-bound merchandise following a major disaster), although I could be wrong.
Yes, apparently the masks do not prevent people from getting sick, especially since they are rather uncomfortable to wear and just cause people to touch their faces more. A sick person can avoid infecting others by wearing a mask, but healthy people will see no benefit. Just create shortages which will put communities at risk.
Specializes in NICU, PICU, Transport, L&D, Hospice.
57 minutes ago, TriciaJ said:
Yes, apparently the masks do not prevent people from getting sick, especially since they are rather uncomfortable to wear and just cause people to touch their faces more. A sick person can avoid infecting others by wearing a mask, but healthy people will see no benefit. Just create shortages which will put communities at risk.
But the working class person with a cough and no paid sick time can use them to minimize their spread of virus as they go about their ADLs.
But the working class person with a cough and no paid sick time can use them to minimize their spread of virus as they go about their ADLs.
True, but I get the sense that most laypeople aren't using them to protect others when they're sick, rather they're using the masks to protect themselves against other sick people (which is pointless and wasteful).
In the case of coronavirus, it appears that people are contagious long before the become symptomatic, so by the time you're actually coughing and feeling inclined to use a mask, it could have easily already spread.
1 hour ago, TriciaJ said:
Yes, apparently the masks do not prevent people from getting sick, especially since they are rather uncomfortable to wear and just cause people to touch their faces more.
Strongly agree.
I was working abroad during the swine flu scare in 2009. Even though Americans claimed that swine flu originated in Mexico, it spread to the rest of the world from the US. Any time any American was sick with anything, people assumed we had swine flu (just like how people currently assume that any Chinese person who is sick with any upper respiratory condition, like a cold, has coronavirus).
I got a simple head cold abroad, but had to wear a mask to work because people assumed I had swine flu. It was disgusting--I had so many nasal secretions pooling in my mask that it was literally drenched. The constant contact with wet paper rubbed my nose raw, so I kept rubbing my nose and touching my face. Each time I touched the mask, I got a giant goop of rhinovirus-rich snot all over my hands, which would easily be transferred to any surface I touched without proper hand hygiene.
I guess my point is that even with surgical masks, infected people really shouldn't be out and about. Masks really aren't a solution for infected people to be in the community, since they'll just get soaked with coronavirus-rich secretions which can be transferred to other surfaces whenever people touch the mask (and they will, because it's far more uncomfortable to wear one for an extended period of time when you're sick than when you're healthy).
I actually think that giving sick people masks would put the population at even greater risk, since it gives people a false sense of security about hygiene when they really need to self-quarentine.
IMO, infected people should be using masks the same way we use them to transport people on droplet/airborne precautions in the hospital: worn for very short times between two closed-room, private locations, and only when absolutely necessary. The rest of the time, you need to self-quarentine, just like we do in the hospital with droplet/airborne. Even with a mask on, you shoudln't be out at the grocery store or hanging out in the hospital cafeteria.
Specializes in Psych, Corrections, Med-Surg, Ambulatory.
1 hour ago, adventure_rn said:
True, but I get the sense that most laypeople aren't using them to protect others when they're sick, rather they're using the masks to protect themselves against other sick people (which is pointless and wasteful).
Even with a mask on, you shoudln't be out at the grocery store or hanging out in the hospital cafeteria.
Especially since you have to remove your mask to consume anything. So you should Just. Stay. Home.
Millions of working Americans can't stay home because they have a cough. There is no public health provision to cover sick pay for people.
You make an interesting point, but again, I don't think that this subset of people are driving the supply shortages.
I also wonder if we're going to reach a point where employers will by more stringent about requiring employees who are sick to stay home, even if they don't have short-term sick pay; people who don't have vacation time stored up or an emergency fund may find themselves in a tough situation.
Honestly, the optics of having an employee who is coughing/sneezing/sniffling and wearing a face mask are terrible for businesses (especially in light of the coronavirus concerns), and would probably garner complaints from both consumers and co-workers.
We don't have public funds to cover these people who are out of work, but that's the nature of living in a capitalist society, for better or worse.
ptsfirst
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My hospital uses Max Air Helmets and is telling us that we have to share dlc shields ?