Coronavirus COVID-19: Supplies and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
See below for the latest information about what hospital and health system leaders should know in regards to supplies and personal protective equipment shortages during the COVID-19 pandemic. For a comprehensive catalog of COVID-19 resources, visit the AHA's Updates and Resources on Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) webpage.
Resource: AHA Working to Address COVID-19 Supply & Equipment Issues
Learn how the AHA is working to make sure hospitals and health systems on the front lines have the supplies and equipment they need.
This resource offers information on Providence's 100 Million Mask Challenge and how to create your own mask.
This resources page from the Association for Health Care Resource & Materials Management provides guidance and links to essential regulatory and supply chain websites with COVID-19 information.
These CDC guidelines cover guidance for health care personnel on standard, contract and airborne precautions, including the use of eye protection.
This CDC tool offers hospitals and health systems a checklist for optimizing N95 respirator supply and release of stockpiled N95 facepiece respirators beyond manufacturer shelf life
April 18, 2020
CDC resource provides instructions on how to decontaminate and reuse FFRs as a crisis capacity strategy to ensure continued availability.
April 3, 2020
Stanford Medicine report provides Q&A, resources and strategies for optimizing use of N95 respirators and other facemasks. Published March 25, 2020
March 28, 2020
This JAMA editorial provides a summary of recommendations for PPE conservation and management, including readers’ suggestions to address impending product shortages.
This National Center for Biotechnology Information shares an abstract from the National Institutes of Health on creating simple respiratory masks.
These guidelines from the American Association of Blood Banks provide information and resources for hospitals to consider when reviewing blood supply strategies and policies.
AHA Resource: COVID-19 Models: Forecasting the Pandemic’s Spread and Planning for recovery
September 29, 2020
This updated report from the AHA provides an overview of links to models that can help organizations address COVID-19 case projections and capacity planning, community vulnerability mapping and case mapping. The report provides links to leading COVID-19 models and provides an overview of each tool’s capabilities and the resource’s methodology documentation. New recovery calculators help estimate how long it will take to complete backlogs of postponed procedures and model-estimated critical care capabilities based on given inputs at baseline.
April 18, 2020
Missouri Hospital Association resource provides crisis standards of care, planning assumptions and how to prepare care settings.
April 1, 2020
Medical experts focus on tiered, proactive strategies to optimize resource use in the event the current COVID-19 outbreak spreads and creates severe resource demands. Strategies include preparing, conserving, substituting, adapting, re-using, and re-allocating resources; adjusting for staffing shortages; adapting emergency department operations; and developing critical care protocols for the COVID-19 patient.
This hospital toolkit from NYC Health offers resources in emergencies.
March 31, 2020
Hospital Surge Capacity and Immediate Bed Availability planning resource from Healthcare Emergency Preparedness Information Gateway
HHS Resources: COVID-19 Critical Care Surge Resources
April 3, 2020
Surge Guides from this collection of resources from the Technical Resources, Assistance Center, and Information Exchange (TRACIE) focuses on plans, tools, templates, and other immediately implementable resources to help with COVID-19 preparedness, response, recovery, and mitigation efforts, concentrating on critical care surge.
- Hospital Surge Capacity and Immediate Bed Availability
April 3, 2020
The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality website provides a surge toolkit and facility checklist for reopening a shuttered hospital.
April 20, 2020
ECRI experts review how to use N95 respirators safely when normal procedures are challenging due to shortages. The video covers expert advice on using outdated or expired masks, how to get multiple uses from masks, cleaning and disinfection procedures, UV disinfection, navigating supply-chain shortages, and why ECRI does not recommend homemade masks for health care facilities. Published March 25, 2020
AHA Advisory: Letter on Production of Medical Supplies, FEMA Extends Deadline and Other Updates
March 21, 2020
In this AHA Advisory, AHA, others urge President Trump to immediately use Defense Production Act to increase domestic production of medical supplies. The AHA, American Medical Association and American Nurses Association urged President Trump to immediately use the Defense Production Act to increase the domestic production of medical supplies and equipment that hospitals, health systems, physicians, nurses and all front-line providers need.
March 19, 2020
In this AHA Advisory, CMS and CDC, as well as other organizations, have released a number of new documents and other information related to COVID-19. This includes recommendations for handling elective surgeries in response to COVID-19; updated strategies for providers to optimize the use of personal protective equipment (PPE), including eye protection, isolation gowns, facemasks and N-95 respirators; updated Food and Drug Administration (FDA) guidance on COVID-19 testing; the granting of authority to the Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to prioritize the production and distribution of certain medical supplies and equipment; and a new effective date for the ICD-10-CM diagnosis code for COVID-19.
March 12, 2020
A March 12 press release highlights the letter AHA and two other organizations sent to the White House urging the president to declare the coronavirus outbreak a public health emergency.
Article: FDA expands health care respirator access during coronavirus outbreak
March 3, 2020/p>
Health care personnel may use certain N95 and other respirators approved for use in industrial settings during the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak under an emergency use authorization approved by the Food and Drug Administration:
Article: COVID-19 Update: News on coverage, tests and N95 respirators
March 6, 2020
Latest news from AHIP, Washington state’s insurance commissioner, CMS, LabCorp and President Trump.
Latest from AHA on Supplies and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
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