WVU Medicine is seeking stockpiles of protective equipment for a possible surge of patients that will require doctors and nurses to use more personal protective equipment than normal.
That’s according to Dr. Steve Hoffmann, system vice president of clinical integration, who is managing WVU Medicine’s overall preparedness efforts.
Anyone with a stockpile of masks, protective gloves, gowns or goggles, who would be willing to donate if needed, can tell WVU Medicine what they have by emailing donatesupplies@wvumedicine.org.
“We don’t want to take people’s stuff if we don’t need it,” Hoffmann said.
However, knowing where more protective supplies can be gotten in an emergency would be “extraordinarily useful.”
Eye protection, such as goggles, will be especially important, and is of particular need, Hoffmann said.
Even non-medical grade protective supplies can be used and if needed, would be used when the medical grade supplies are exhausted, Hoffmann said.
Personal protection is used routinely, but eye protection isn’t as commonly needed by health care professionals so there isn’t as much in stock. However, COVID-19 is a droplet disease, which means it can be transmitted through coughs and sneezes, Hoffmann said.
If the disease gets into the mucus membrane — the eyes, nose or mouth — of the uninfected, it can infect them, Hoffmann said.
West Virginia and Monongalia County have not been hit as hard by COVID-19 as others parts of the country, but Hoffmann believes the number of reported cases will increase in the coming week.
He said the area is in as good of a position as possible and that the virus taking longer to get here has allowed for extra time to prepare.
That time is important because doctors around the world are reporting shortages of protective equipment.
A 57-year-old Italian doctor, Marcello Natali, died in Milian on Wednesday. Prior to his death he told Euronews the hospital was out of protective gloves and they were not prepared for the situation.
