CINCINNATI, Ohio— We've heard the need for N95 masks, gloves, and hand sanitizer at our local hospitals. But a new need that could help nurses and doctors communicate better is now critical, and it's not what you think.
- Nurses and doctors need baby monitors to communicate easier with full PPE on
- They will also help if patients are cared for at other locations such as hotels and convention centers
- Neighborhood Bridges Lebanon was able to collect 70 baby monitors in just two days
While doctors and nurses suit up in full personal protective equipment, they've found it more difficult to communicate.
"The traditional call light system that they would use to call out for assistance or the patient would call out for help from the nurse just isn't working for them," Rebecca Strole, an area director for Neighborhood Bridges Lebanon said.
That's when an ICU nurse approached Neighborhood Bridges Lebanon- a local charity that helps people that need help get it.
"The ICU nurse reached out to us and said, do you think this is something that Neighborhood Bridges Lebanon could help us with?" Strole said. "We are in desperate need of baby monitors."
Neighborhood Bridges posted the need on their Facebook page. The plan was to donate any new or used baby monitors to Bethesda North Hospital, and their goal was to get 30 of them. But within two days, they already received 70 baby monitors.
"Cincinnati's such an amazing community on the best of days," Jeanette Altenau, the director of community relations at TriHealth, said. "And especially during times like this, we all really rally together."
"I think people want to help and they don't know how to help,' Lynn Payne, an area director for Neighborhood Bridges Lebanon, said. "And we can kind of give them that platform to say hey that would be a great way for me to get rid of this old baby monitor."
That's enough baby monitors to cover the entire COVID-19 unit at Bethesda North and part of Good Samaritan Hospital's unit too.
"The neighborhood bridge story is such a fabulous way to show what a bunch of community members can do to try to save a life from their own home," Altenau said.
The baby monitors not only help with communication while wearing PPE, but it will also help when hospitals have beds in other locations.
"As TriHealth works to expand our current patient care areas, a donation of baby monitors gives us the opportunity to have our physicians and our nurses stay in immediate contact with their patients in this new environment that we're going to be caring for," Altenau said.
TriHealth, which manages both hospitals, says the donations from the community have been overwhelming. They've received N95 masks from schools and even Home Depot. They say to look inside your home or workplace, and you may be surprised with what you already have that can help the health care workers now.
"All of these items that we might have in our own homes that we can donate to the hospital system so that they're ready to take care of our patients when they come into the hospitals," Altenau said.
And for these volunteers at Neighborhood Bridges, they're happy to help and allow others to do the same.
"When you volunteer or donate, it makes you feel good," Strole said. "And it's good to know that even in times like these where the world has kind of gone crazy that people are still out there and willing to help."
If you have baby monitors or anything else to donate to the hospitals, you can drop them off at any TriHealth location in the Cincinnati area. In other parts of the state, contact those hospitals directly to find out the easiest way to donate.