Supply chain woes<\/strong><\/p>\nEven with taking all the precautions and following the best practices available, there are still some aspects of managing a hospital during the pandemic crisis that are beyond the control of hospital administrators.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you see on the news that we never know what we are going to get in our supply chain, that\u2019s no joke,\u201d Gomez said.<\/p>\n
For example, on a recent order for 500 large and medium N95 masks, Alvarado ended up receiving 200 smalls. The hospital is also having a \u201chard time\u201d getting cleaning supplies.<\/p>\n
However, Gomez said, the hospital\u2019s environmental services director has kept Alvarado supplied by finding some \u201cphenomenally resourceful\u201d solutions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe ordered five or six cases [of the usual cleaning wipes] in our last order and we got none,\u201d Gomez said. \u201cBut what our EVS director has done is she was able to get the liquid stuff. We could get the dry wipes, that\u2019s easy, and we put together buckets and we did a makeshift container so we can pull them right out of the top like the other buckets were and we distributed those out on the floor with all the proper equipment and all the proper solutions to clean.\u201d<\/p>\n
And although Gomez said the hospital is equipped with enough N95 masks for nurses to get one a day for \u201ca number of weeks,\u201d she still worries about keeping the hospital properly stocked.<\/p>\n
\u201cPPE and general supplies is such a big issue. It really, really is such a big issue,\u201d she said. \u201cI just can\u2019t say, \u2018Oh we\u2019re OK for today and tomorrow.\u2019 I got to look ahead three weeks, four weeks because the reality is, I\u2019m only allowed one order a month. That order goes in on the first of the month. Literally, my director, she woke up at 11:45 at night and at midnight she submitted our order because it\u2019s first come, first serve in the queue.\u201d<\/p>\n
The hospital has also begun reusing N95 masks by using a hydrogen peroxide sterilizer.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re able to sterilize and we get about half of them back,\u201d Gomez said.<\/p>\n
The good news for the hospital\u2019s supplies is that it is well stocked with ventilators \u2014 28 total \u2014 and medication.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe hydroxychloroquine \u2014 we have it and so if it comes down to needing to be used, we have it; we have azithromycin and those are the two big ones being talked about on the news all the time,\u201d Gomez said, adding that Alvarado has at least three weeks of doses. Although Alvarado is in possession of these drugs, they are still experimental and unproven thus far at treating COVID-19 and have lately become controversial as the Trump administration pushes for their use and the scientific community wants a more restrained approach.<\/p>\n
Public praise<\/strong><\/p>\nGomez is very proud of her staff and how it has adapted to the challenges brought on by the pandemic.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve worked in healthcare for over 25 years and I\u2019ve never worked with a more cohesive strong leadership team,\u201d she said, adding that her team is using a variety of communication strategies to keep up moral at the hospital.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not just fighting COVID-19 right now, we\u2019re fighting fear, because there was an element right away of fear,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen they say the situation is fluid, it\u2019s absolutely true. And what I\u2019ve found is transparency alleviates fears, because if they know what I know, they know what I know.\u201d<\/p>\n
The communication strategy is working and Gomez shared that a nurse recently volunteered to work on the COVID unit.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is phenomenal the way our staff is stepping up to care for these patients and the energy they\u2019re bringing, it is really heartwarming,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The community has also stepped up in heartwarming ways. The hospital has received a number of donations, including \u201cdirt cheap\u201d produce from a market that the hospital gave out to staff; donations of masks that Gomez was \u201cvery grateful\u201d for because those masks will be given to hospital staff that are not on the COVID floors; and Dominoes recently treated ER staff to pizza.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want to thank the public,\u201d Gomez said. \u201cEveryone has been so supportive and so kind. People have put flowers on our front lawn and said, \u2018Thank you healthcare heroes.\u2019 They put some banners on our lawn last week, which was awesome, thanking the healthcare workers.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014Comun\u00edquese con el editor Jeff Clemetson en jeff@sdnews.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By JEFF CLEMETSON | La Mesa Courier On April 1, Alvarado Hospital admitted its first confirmed COVID-19 patient, a situation that Alvarado CEO Robin Gomez described as \u201cvery fortunate.\u201d \u201cMany other hospitals in the county cannot say that. There were many more that had positives before we did,\u201d she said. As of April 6 when […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":778,"featured_media":227003,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11548","_seopress_titles_title":"Preparing for a pandemic","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11548,11551,11550],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-227002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-la-mesa-courier","category-news","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/778"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=227002"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227002\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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