Reynolds Memorial Hospital Staff Anticipates Demand for Medical Supplies

GLEN DALE -- The head of the major hospital in Marshall County says the COVID-19 crisis is expected to reach its worst point locally by the end of next week, and they're conserving supplies to prepare for it.

Dr. David Hess, CEO of WVU Medicine Reynolds Memorial Hospital, said the hospital went through approximately 500 medical gowns over last weekend, and has begun conserving their medical supplies where they can. Face masks, Hess said, are being treated with ultraviolet light, allowing them to be reused, though many supplies cannot be reused in this way.

"We have hospitals in our health system that have a UV robot light that can disinfect the masks," he said. "We have our employees put their name on the masks and they'll get disinfected up to four different times and we can reuse that mask. Some other techniques are that we're clustering when we go into a patient's room, because every time they go in the room, they have to put on the masks, the gloves, the gowns, and some of those are disposable. We can't sterilize it. So we're limiting the number of times we go into those patients' rooms. … When you're changing them frequently, we go through them pretty quickly."

Hess said he felt Reynolds was sufficiently prepared to handle the influx of COVID-19 patients, even accounting for the patients that might come from outside the county. Hess said they were projecting the situation to peak on April 16.

"Our predictions in the county, because we'll have some patient that come up from Wetzel County, are that we'll have enough beds and ventilators," Hess said. "If you have it hit a nursing home, there's potential for a quick surge just in nursing home patients, and we've seen that in Morgantown and other parts of the state -- if you get a pocket of (COVID-19), it can overwhelm you pretty quickly. We're preparing for the worst-case scenario, but we're ready for what's modeled and predicted."

Hess added that he anticipates that certain medical supplies, especially face masks, could be in short supply. Although residents are advised to wear a face mask when in public if they anticipate being closer than the six feet of social distance advised, Hess said he expects some to purchase medical masks rather than using cloth masks, leading to a possible shortage.

"The more donations the better, especially since the CDC has recommended that if you can't socially distance when you go out, to wear a mask. Those are homemade masks, not medical-grade masks, but we do think that because some people will use medical-grade masks, there will continue to be a shortage for us to be able to buy some. We definitely encourage donations like this ... because we do think that as people wear those masks around the community, there's a potential to buy these up."

On Tuesday, Hess was on hand to receive a donation from Marshall County Magistrate Zach Allman, who donated a case of gloves, face shields and gowns. Allman purchased the supplies from Kennedy Hardware, which had also made similar donations to the hospital. Each case is a thousand units of each supply.

Allman said he wanted to give back to the hospital which had supported him while on tour in Iraq, when he would receive care packages from the hospital where his late mother worked.

"I see this as a repayment of a debt," Allman said. "My mom worked here for 20 years, and when I was in Iraq, I received countless care packages from the folks that worked here, just reminding me that they're here for me, they were supporting me while I was in harm's way. Now, those roles are reversed, and they're in harm's way. This is the least I could do to provide supplies and care packages to them."