Wright State Donates Valuable PPE To Premier Health
Preview Text: Wright State donated 80 boxes of surgical masks, 145 boxes of gloves, 20 boxes of gowns and more to Premier Health.
Social Text: They donated PPE equipment meant for students.
DAYTON, Ohio — An essential piece of keeping doctors and nurses safe is using personal protective equipment or PPE. Right now, the demand for masks, gloves, gowns, and face-shields makes these items are hard to find — even for hospitals.
- Wright State University donated all their personal protective equipment meant for its students to Premier Health
- In total, Wright State donated 80 boxes of surgical masks, 145 boxes of gloves, 20 boxes of gowns
- Premier Health is in the middle of containing an outbreak at two of its facilities in Troy, at Koester Pavilion and SpringMeade.
Currently, it takes weeks for shipments of personal protective equipment to arrive at hospitals — simply because the demand is too great.
Backup options like N95 painter's masks are also mostly sold out, as people at home are stockpiling them for their own protection against COVID 19.
For hospitals and nursing homes like Koester Pavilion in Troy, which is battling a deadly outbreak — this is a big concern.
“It’s not that they have none, they’re critically low,” Miami County Public Health Commissioner Dennis Propes said.
When asked about their supplies, Premier Health said in a statement:
“We have the personal protective equipment that we need right now. There is ongoing conversation about potential future demand and whether there will be enough such equipment during later stages of the pandemic. Our focus has been ensuring that we do not overuse PPE outside of recommended situations to ensure we can maintain an adequate supply if and when a higher number of cases challenges our health care system. Many people are working proactively to address that long-term need, including ways to extend the life of our PPE equipment.”
To aid Premier Health during this critical time, Wright State University’s College of Nursing has gathered up all the PPE they use for their students and donated them to Premier Health.
Interim Dean of Nursing and Health at Wright State Deborah Ulrich said it’s the very least they could do.
“We felt it was very necessary for us to help them because they help us, and we’re all in this together,” Ulrich said.
In total, Wright State donated 80 boxes of surgical masks, 145 boxes of gloves, 20 boxes of gowns, and boxes of shoe covers and hair covers — all of which should help keep staff from having to reuse masks —something Ulrich said should never be done.
“Really no,” she said. “It’s best to use a new mask. Once it gets wet from breathing or whatever, it’s not going to protect like it should. So, at this point in time, I don’t think it’s been proven one way or the other for sure that you can reuse them, but they really should not be reused.”
She said PPE is absolutely essential in protecting medical professionals from contracting COVID-19 as long as they are being used properly.
“But when they don’t have enough, or they’re trying to skimp and maybe cut corners a little bit, it does cause problems and it’s not safe,” Ulrich said.
She's urging people to stop stockpiling equipment they don’t need.
“I think hoarding equipment that healthcare people need is wrong,” she said.
Which goes back to how important Wright State’s donation is toward helping Premier Health contain the outbreak.
“It makes us feel wonderful," Ulrich said. "And we feel like we are contributing to the community, and that’s what the university wants to do. We wanna be part of the community. If that help them in any way, I think we are all thrilled to death that we are able to contribute.”