CHARLOTTE, N.C. — As hospitals across the country face a shortage of personal protective equipment, The Joint Commission has made a new recommendation that changes the standard of what would regularly be allowed.
The Joint Commission told healthcare workers they could not use their own PPE, now they're saying they should be allowed to if they don't feel adequately protected by what the hospital has.
The move allows healthcare staff to bring in their own personal protective equipment in response to the nation's current shortage. "You go into medicine because you want to help people, and you're trained to be able to help people especially in a crisis," said local outpatient physician Sheila Natarajan.
She said healthcare providers never could've imagined being in this position, though. "When you go into medicine you never think that you would be in a situation where you at least won't have basic standard of care," Natarajan said.
The lack of personal protective equipment is putting healthcare workers in an impossible position."You're forced to make decisions to care for your patients but at the same time if you're not protected, your own family's lives are at risk," Natarajan said.
Recognizing this, the healthcare-standard setting organization, The Joint Commission has just changed its recommendation, now allowing healthcare staff to bring in their own protective equipment if they feel they aren't properly protected.
"This was a massive statement to back up the healthcare community," Natarajan said, "In some places, hands were kind of slapped or they were put on furlough if they brought in anything of their own because some people do have their own N95s."
The PPE shortage is so dire, Natarajan has started a drive to collect anything she can from the community. "Healthcare systems, they're taking commercial grade N95s."
Natarajan said they're also taking safety goggles, latex-free gloves, shoe covers, and surgical masks."Right now, homemade masks can be used on patients," Natarajan said. The donations will be taken to local hospitals that have processes for sterilizing them.
"The virus dies off in certain time periods if you just leave it, and the masks are going to have their own sterilization process themselves," Natarajan said.
This drive for donations is called CLTGivePPE. For the next four weeks on Thursdays and Saturdays from 12-4 p.m. they'll be collecting PPE donations at the Goodwill in Ballantyne and the Goodwill on Wilkinson in Charlotte.