When COVID-19 was surging in Massachusetts last spring, masks and other personal protective equipment (PPE) were in short supply — health care workers, first responders and others were scrambling to find enough to stay safe. Eight months into the pandemic, as infection rates are on the rise and the state faces the possibility of another surge, PPE can still be hard to come by.
Home health care companies, hospitals, nursing homes and other organizations like police, fire and ambulance services are busy stockpiling the equipment, to be as ready as possible if the number of patients spikes again.
"If I were to have to give you a yes or no answer on ‘do we have enough PPE?’ I would say no," said Shira Doron, a physician and hospital epidemiologist at Tufts Medical Center. "We are using regular face masks for multiple patients in a row. Probably the whole day's worth of patients. And when we put on an N95, we are striving to wear it for as long as possible without taking it off. In non-pandemic times, we wear it for one patient only. And many hospitals have been or are still reusing their N95s."
Nurses with the Massachusetts Nurses Association say there's a lack of communication, standardization and transparency about how much PPE is on-hand at hospitals. But hospitals aren't required to report to the state how much PPE they have, and in a highly competitive market, they may be hesitant to make that information public.
Massachusetts has already distributed more than 37 million masks, gloves and gowns out of its emergency supply since the start of the pandemic. Should institutions fall short on their own, Gov. Charlie Baker said the state currently has enough on hand to meet emergency needs through the end of next year.
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