2020-2021 HEALTHCARE PRODUCT ALL-STARS 2020-2021 HEALTHCARE PRODUCT ALL-STARS
FIELD PERFORMANCE: When an easily and rapidly transmissible respiratory virus spreads around the globe, clinicians and other healthcare workers delivering patient care in confined but exposure-laden spaces require something a bit more protective than standard hand-sewn, homemade cloth covers, masks and woven surgical masks. They need much more durable products that can filter out and repel most, if not all, airborne, liquid and solid contaminants. One option (face shields), made of clear, protective plastic, migrated to healthcare from other industries, such as construction and maintenance, repair and operations (MO). The other option (9 respirators) can trace its roots back to Peter Tsai, an inventor and materials scientist who pat- ented the 9 respirator and its synthetic filtration material in 199. The explosion of COVID-19 in early 2020 spiked consumer demand for these higher- end clinical products, leading initially to stockouts and shortages for clinicians and healthcare workers on the front lines until federal and state authorities redirected mass consumption to standard cloth and surgical masks. This, combined with the 3-D print production of face shields by a growing number of charitable and social responsibility-minded companies, helped to replenish supply. 3M ealth Care certainly recognies
and understands the supply-and-demand pressures on 9 products wrought by the pandemic, according to a statement the company issued to P. ith the COVID-19 global pandemic, healthcare workers around the globe face extraordinary challenges every day. 3M is committed to supplying our healthcare heroes with 9 respirators so they can continue to treat their patients,” 3M Health Care stated.. s a leading manufacturer of 9 respirators in the .., 3M is making more respirators than ever before. e will produce 2 billion respirators globally by the end of 2020, supporting the public health and government response to the pandemic, while helping businesses return to work as economies reopen.”
Owens & Minor/Halyard weathers the supply-and-demand pressures, too. The COVID-19 pandemic has reinforced
the fundamental role personal protective equipment (PP) plays in the delivery of safe, effective healthcare, said lex odges, Vice President of Marketing
lobal trategy, Owens Minoralyard. o much so that PP is a now a widely understood acronym among policymakers and the public, in particular 9 respirators that have become a household name. odges notes that while some 9s
approved for emergency use are indus- trial grade, the alyard 9s are cleared by the ood and Drug dministration as medical devices for use in healthcare settings. urther, the luidshield urgi- cal 9s are manufactured domestically. The duckbill breathing chamber is more than twice as large as the leading surgi- cal 9, and exceeds IO standards for breathability, according to odges. ecause proper snug fit is critical, Owens Minoralyards 9s come in a range of sies, with malleable nose wire to adust fit and have strong elastic straps that are securely bonded — not stapled — to the mask. The need for face shields in certain areas pre-dates the demand COVID-19 brought on.
ace masks and face shields have long been critical tools in protecting healthcare workers from airborne contaminants, said alph asile, Vice President, ealthmark Industries. t ealthmark, our focus is the processing professional responsible for cleaning clinically used medical devices. enerally referred to as the dirty-side as the name implies, this is the area where heavily soiled medical devices arrive to be cleaned. hile COVID-19 has brought sharp focus on PP, and particularly face masks and face shields, the fact of the mat- ter is, those working on the dirty side have always been working in a very haardous environment. The act of manual cleaning, for instance, inevitably aerosolies contaminants on the medical device,” Basile continued. “The source of most of those contaminants comes from patients, often patients with compro- mised immune systems andor infections. When airborne, these contaminants repre- sent a significant risk to the worker. plash- ing can lead to contaminants reaching the eyes, mouth, nose and attire of the worker. erosolied contaminants can be breathed in by mouth or nose. Without protection tools, such as face shields, and face masks, as well as other engineering controls (splash screens, for instance), staff are at very high risk of being infected with serious, life-threatening, contaminants.
The challenge healthcare – and Health-
mark faced is that the virus originated and moved from the same geographical location as where many PP items are manufac- tured. ssentially, shortages followed the spreading virus, according to Basile. To address this, we pivoted to find domestic sources for face shields, and also developed our own capabilities to make our very popular style of face shield the face shield with a drape,” Basile noted. “The drape material (which is M) is attached to the bottom of the face shield and is then tucked into the protective gown, providing protection of the neck area from splashing. It took us a couple of months to find a suit- able source and develop our production line. ut I am happy to say we are now able to reliably supply face shields to the sterile processing professionals who need them. Designed by biomedical engineers, Cleanpace Technologys Cleanpace O is a Powered ir Purifying espi- rator (PP) that eliminates the need to stockpile disposable 9 respirators and solves the problem of supply chain disrup- tions experienced during the pandemic, according to lex irrell, Ph.D., CO. or those wearing Cleanpace O,
the benefits include a higher level of pro- tection and increased comfort, irrell indicated. Cleanpace O overcomes a lot of the discomfort issues that healthcare workers commonly experience when wear- ing disposable 9s, such as heat stress, fogging, moisture and facial scarring. hen compared to traditional PPs, Cleanpace O is a game changer in that it has none of the belts and hoses usually associated with PPs and its really lightweight, simple to use and deploy.” Clinicians can treat COVID-19 patients
while comfortably wearing Cleanpace O for up to nine hours, and they can communicate easily with colleagues and patients while wearing the respirator, Birrell added. IF BENCHED: ot only would clinicians
and other healthcare workers risk exposure to bacterial and viral microbes but they’d also fail to recognie and avert health- compromising habits. uhofs nti-og ace hields are vital
to the welfare and safety of healthcare providers especially in light of the current COVID-19 pandemic, said oreen Costel- loe, Director of Marketing, uhof ealth- care Corp. The face shields are designed
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hpnonline.com • HEALTHCARE PURCHASING NEWS • January 2021 11
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