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E
ven if your facili-
ty isn't on the
frontlines of the
battle to combat COVID-
19, you can still find ways
to join in and help. For
our temporarily shuttered
surgery center, that meant
volunteering to serve as
the main PPE donation
site for our local commu-
nity hospital and asking for donations in our local paper, on Facebook
and on various webpages. On Wednesdays from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.,
two members of our staff accept PPE donations — masks, gloves, eye
protection and gowns — from people who called ahead to let us know
they were donating. After receiving the donations, the two staff mem-
bers remove the items from the bags and boxes in which they came
and transfer them to our facility's waiting room area. Here, another
member of our team examines the PPE to make sure it's usable, labels
it and places it in a plastic bag. Finally, the bagged PPE donations are
moved to a storage area and added to our running inventory count. On
a weekly basis, we report our totals to leaders at the community hospi-
tal who decide how much they need. We also developed a distribution-
tracking system, so we know exactly what items have been used and
what items remains in our inventory.
Nadine Calloway Reese, RN, BSN, CCRN, TNCC
Kona Ambulatory Surgery Center
Kailua-Kona, Hawaii
HELPING HAND
Volunteer as a PPE Donation Center
DONATION TEAM While they waited to resume elective procedures, the staff
at Kona Ambulatory Surgery Center went to work as the main PPE donation
site for the Kona Community Hospital.
nreese@konaasc.com
Kona
Ambulatory
Surgery
Center
Ideas Work
That
