Community Medical Centers’ Vice President of Supply Chain Management, Lucky Malhi, gives an update on the current PPE situation throughout the Community Medical Centers health system and reminds people how they can help. 

We continue to be amazed by the dedication and passion that everyone in the Community health system has shown throughout the last 5 months. Their commitment to caring for their patients and each other during this rapidly-changing pandemic is truly inspiring.

Since February, we’ve been operating in a business NOT as usual mode as we’ve been preparing for this surge… and the surge is definitely here. Currently we have enough Remdesivir to treat about 30 patients after getting an emergency shipment last week and we are hoping for an additional delivery this week.

As patient volumes continue to rise and stay at historically high volumes, we continue to struggle with three main resources: staff, supplies and beds.

And while we face daily challenges, right now, personal protective equipment, or PPE, is our top challenge. We’ve struggled obtaining PPE for the last 5-6 months but thanks to the hard work of many of my team, we’ve been able to find alternate sources of supply.

Utilization of supplies continues to increase. For example, at the beginning of June, we used on average 1,000 N95 masks per day. This last week, as COVID inpatients have surged, our daily usage has nearly tripled to about 3,000 N95 masks per day.

Safety of all staff and patients continues to be the driving force behind the decisions we make and the Supply Chain Management team just received approval to use N95 masks with valves, with an unrated mask on top.

Thankfully, we received just over 100,000 N95s this week which will allow us to continue providing N95s for our staff at least for the next 30 days.

Truthfully, we don’t know when this pandemic will end but until then, we have to continue to be diligent and careful with our resources. The best way the public can help is to continue to wear masks when in public spaces, practice social distancing and wash their hands. And thank you to all those who continue to donate PPE and food and other things to boost morale during this rapidly changing situation.