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U T P A T I E N T S U R G E R Y M A G A Z I N E • F E B R U A R Y 2 0 2 1
F
or most patients, wear-
ing a surgical mask is a
minor inconvenience
and a necessary part of receiv-
ing care in the era of COVID-
19. For patients with a hearing
impairment who rely on read-
ing lips, however, a mask effec-
tively severs their communica-
tion lifeline. With a small
tweak to the standard mask
design, you can adhere to criti-
cal infection prevention proto-
cols and ensure hearing-
impaired patients receive clear
information about their care.
That's the beauty of a see-
through surgical mask, a face
covering with a clear vinyl win-
dow that allows patients to
read their providers' lips.
Organic origins
Like so many great ideas, this
one came about organically for
us. During a monthly staff meet-
ing, one of our team members
mentioned window masks she'd
seen on Facebook. Initially, we
hoped to simply purchase the
masks outright. But during the
critical shortage of PPE early in
the pandemic, we couldn't find
them anywhere. So, we did
what any creative and industri-
ous team of healthcare professionals would do: We
made the masks ourselves.
A member of our ethics team, Rebecca Tall, was
volunteering with a sewing group in the community
who pulled together at the start of the COVID-19
crisis to sew masks for health care providers. They
called themselves the "Mask Force" and they
designed and produced some prototype window
masks for us to try. We settled on a preferred
design and then took over much of the production
ourselves with the help of Grace Donatelli, a retired
seamstress and friend of our department.
Over time, we produced more than 200 window
masks and shared them across our 12 Sentara hos-
A Clear Communication Upgrade
See-through masks help us care for hearing-impaired patients.
Staffing
Katy Trapp, BSN, RN-BC
REVEALING FEATURES Sentara Healthcare's ethics team worked with a community volunteer "Mask Force" to design and
produce transparent masks for the hearing impaired.
Dale
Gauding/Sentara
Healthcare
