Is It Time To Consider Reusable PPE (Again)?
By John Strong
As the race continues to find sources for disposable Personal Protection Equipment several things come to mind beyond our obvious need for it right now. While some healthcare providers are considering the re-processing of these items, it still represents a small fraction of all the PPE being manufactured globally and here in the United States.
My first question is what’s happening to the mountains of waste that are being created from the use of these items during the pandemic? There is no question that our front-line providers need high quality protection, and conventional wisdom has been to use disposables for many years. Given the staggering need for PPE due to the pandemic, can we actually build enough “stockpiles” of PPE for future use, and have viable supply chain strategies that will promote the manufacture of these products in times of extreme needs, even if the products are manufactured here in the United States?
I’m certainly not advocating to go back to the bad old days when almost everything used in a healthcare setting was reusable. Would I want reusable, laundered and autoclaved lap sponges used in my surgical procedure? Absolutely not. Reprocessed surgeon’s gloves? Nope.
On the other hand, is it possible to manufacture and reprocess to-be-developed N95 masks? Could hospitals go back to yellow reusable isolation gowns after each use? Head covers? Barrier and surgical gowns? While there is the need to have scalable laundry capacity, the number of these products that need to be “stockpiled” would be considerably less under the right circumstances, and could assure a more consistent supply.
According to Practice Greenhealth, a 2010 study published in the OR Nurse Journal indicated that high performance reusable surgical linens when compared to disposable linens at two Washington, DC hospitals were overwhelmingly favored by clinicians for comfort, ease of use and their protective properties. In a further 2012 study they concluded that hospitals who adopted a set of best environmental practices could save as much as $15 billion over 10 years.
Healthcare providers are getting increasingly comfortable reprocessing and reusing a myriad of single-use disposable items. As an industry, why can’t we consider more reprocessing of products built for reuse, such as PPE?
Once we get “past the curve” on COVID-19, healthcare providers should take a close look at the mountains of trash the use of disposables created during the pandemic, right along with the cost of procuring and disposing of those products to their organization. While there is probably some question that stockpiling reusable clinician coverings and masks would be more economical and more protective than disposables, its’ time to get the pencil out and start calculating the benefits. While it is easy to point at laundry capacity as a key speedbump, it may be that scaling laundry operations in a pandemic is easier than trying to source scarce disposable items.
In terms of waste disposal, cost of disposal and logistics it may be time to consider reusables to protect front line healthcare staff. It is worth examining.
