MEDITECH Customers Find New Ways to Address PPE Shortages

For healthcare organizations fighting the coronavirus pandemic, the shortage of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) is an unprecedented challenge. We have seen members of the MEDITECH community address PPE shortages by being resourceful and creative, and engaging with their communities who are eager to help. Here are a few examples:

• Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences (Whitby, ON) launched a Personal Protective Equipment Community Drive webpage that local residents can use as a guide to safely make donations for items that its staff urgently needs.

• After partnering with other technical high schools to make considerable donations of PPE to Milford Regional Medical Center, Blackstone Valley Regional Vocational Technical High School (BVT) is utilizing 3D printing techology to make and donate plastic face shields. “In regards to Blackstone Valley Technical High School, we were overwhelmed by their donation,” said Milford Regional CEO Ed Kelly. “I can’t thank everyone enough for their willingness to join us in the battle to defeat this virus.”

• Campbell County Health (Gillette, WY) had a similar message: "The citizens of Campbell County, Wyoming have huge hearts and want to help”, and also created a website with guidelines for creating masks, isolation gowns, and caps, as well as an instructional YouTube video.

• The Valley Hospital (Ridgewood, NJ) outlined a series of ways people could assist with the shortages. The options include donations of PPE, an at-home mask making kit, and direct cash donations. They also created a set of guidelines for people to safely purchase food from local restaurants and drop it off to their hospital staff, thereby helping out local businesses that could also use some support.​

We will continue to update our information for combating the COVID-19 pandemic, which includes a variety of customer resources and collaborative solutions.