County handling COVID leftovers

Blair organizations cope with abundance of pandemic personal protective equipment

The struggle a few years ago to accumulate masks, gloves, gowns and other personal protective equipment to deal with COVID-19 has led to a much less urgent -- though still real -- problem for some organizations that received personal protective equipment: how to handle the overabundance that remains.

Managers are dealing with crowded storage spaces, expiration dates, deterioration, potential for waste, redistribution to other agencies, creative repurposing and ideas on how things might have been handled better initially.

An Associated Press survey of states describes many disposing of large quantities of PPE -- for Pennsylvania, "tens of thousands of cases of hand sanitizer, face shields, gowns and other items."

Blair County organizations by and large seem to be handling the matter without much distress.

For any major emergency like the pandemic, it's almost certain that afterward, there will be leftovers, said Logan Township emergency management coordinator Jeff Blake.

Items in storage at Logan include Tyvek suits, some of which the township has relegated to a recently acquired decontamination trailer designated for regional use.

Other items are being made available to the township's fire companies or to other agencies, if requested through proper channels -- although it's important to retain enough inventory to cover his department's own potential needs, Blake said.

Nothing currently in storage has reached its expiration date, except maybe gloves, which aren't costly to replace, Blake said.

"We have a bunch left over," said AMED Executive Director Gary Watters.

The second floor of the organization's former headquarters in the city is largely full, he said.

There are approximately 50 cases of gowns, he said.

While the gowns don't have expiration dates, they'll eventually deteriorate and become unusable, given that the space isn't air conditioned, Watters said.

There are also procedure masks and gloves, including odd sizes, he said.

The elastic on such items degrades over time, he said.

And there is hand sanitizer, which carries an expiration date.

AMED has had to throw some sanitizer out already, a process that requires special procedures, he said.

Watters has made inquiries about redistributing some of the PPE items he has to other agencies, although he has't received an answer yet to those inquiries.

AMED ended up with more PPE than needed because the federal government "dumped money" in a way that made it imperative for agencies like his to make large purchases, Watters said.

Southern Alleghenies EMS Council has an abundance of N95 and surgical masks that it has been distributing to ambulance services in the council's six-county region as needed, said council Executive Director Jordan Anthony.

It has also distributed PPE-ready kits, plus Powered Air Purifying Respirators, to agency strike teams in the region, Anthony said.

None of the PPE the council is currently holding is out of date, he said.

It's important to be vigilant to ensure items aren't past their shelf lives, he said.

Presbyterian Senior Life has an excess of gowns, hand sanitizer and N95 masks, according to Casey Jones, corporate director of environmental services for the regional chain that includes Presbyterian Village in Hollidaysburg.

"We are tracking expiration dates and moving PPE throughout our organization to utilize it," Jones wrote in an email forwarded by a corporate spokeswoman.

The organization is using an inventory tracking program to help with the distribution.

Among reasons for the initial excess were vendor requirements to buy multiple PPE items in bulk "as the supply chain caught up with need," Jones wrote. For example, one supplier required agencies to buy a stated number of gowns to get N95 masks, according to Jones.

The organization is trying to avoid waste by using expired N95 masks to replace surgical masks and dust masks that are used by maintenance workers, Jones wrote.

Most of the PPE that came to the Blair County Department of Emergency Services during COVID was ultimately distributed to police, fire and ambulance organizations, according to Director Mark Taylor.

There is a manageable stockpile of N95 masks left, Taylor said.

There is a larger stockpile of gowns -- more gowns than are likely to be used -- although there isn't an expiration date for them, so it's too not much of a problem, Taylor said.

UPMC has been able to use up most of its pandemic supplies, according to Tim Nedley, vice president for UPMC Supply Chain Management. "We are now using the last of the gowns we ordered before their expiration dates," Nedley stated in an email forwarded by a UPMC Altoona spokeswoman. "Our overall diligence and strategy as an organization worked very well."

The city Fire Department has PPE in storage at the city's Margaret Avenue facility, which is climate-controlled, so there is not much worry about deterioration, said Fire Chief Adam Free.

"We use it as we need it," Free said.

The Police Department draws from the same stock, said Joe Merrill, the police chief who recently became interim city manager.

A hectic time

No one could have been truly prepared for something like COVID, said Anthony, the Southern Alleghenies EMS Council head.

Better to have received too much gear than not enough, Anthony said.

Things were hectic at the time, said Blake, the Logan emergency management coordinator.

"It was a challenging supply chain," he said. "At the beginning, we were all scrambling for important, key items."

Though there were times when hand sanitizer, gloves and single-use masks ran low, it never ran out.

The township dealt with it by working with emergency management at the county, state and federal levels, following the guidance they gave, according to Blake.

"It was very dynamic -- changing almost daily," he said. "(But) supplies rolled down to us."

Ultimately, it would be better if PPE distribution would be handled regionally, with stockpiles pushed out routinely to replace items that have expired, said Watters, the AMED chief.

Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.