Dozens of emergency responders were able to replenish their supply of personal protective gear at a drive-up distribution at the AHN McCandless Neighborhood Hospital in Wexford on Thursday morning.
Fire and ambulance services from the North Hills as well as units from Armstrong, Beaver, Butler and Lawrence counties lined up in the hospital’s parking lot to pick up KN95 face masks, face shields, disposable face masks and protective gowns courtesy of the hospital and its parent company, Highmark Health.
“During the pandemic, we’ve used an unprecedented amount of personal protective equipment, so this is an incredibly important donation for us,” said Eric Schmidt, executive director of the Shaler Hampton EMS service. “As is the case with most things that are in high demand, the price to buy these items has gone up, which is placing a financial strain on a lot of emergency medical services.”
At the March 11 distribution, 30,000 KN95 masks, 50,000 surgical masks, 3,000 face shields and 17,000 gowns were handed out to the 28 emergency medical agencies that participated.
EMS agencies were supplied with protective equipment based on their specific needs, hospital officials said.
“EMS professionals have been vital partners to our region’s hospitals and healthcare systems since day one of the pandemic,” said Robert Twaddle, vice president of prehospital care services for AHN.“And while covid-19 cases have begun to decrease in recent days across the region, we recognize that mitigation efforts such as personal protective equipment use will remain vital to the health of caregivers, patients and our communities for the foreseeable.
“We want to make sure that they can maintain their capabilities to protect themselves, their patients and their families with everything that they need,” he said.
Steve McKinniss, administrator for the McCandless-Franklin Park Ambulance Authority, said stocking up on protective equipment has been a challenge.
“Since the pandemic declaration early last March we’ve ended up wearing personal protective equipment for nearly every patient we’ve encountered,” he said. “So we’ve been going through our supplies very quickly.”
In addition to the distribution event in Wexford and one held at Highmark Health’s Downtown headquarters for the City of Pittsburgh’s EMS service, personal protective equipment will be given out on March 16 at AHN Harmar and on March 18 at AHN Brentwood.
