HOUSTON, Texas — Memorial Hermann Hospital is having to do something they’ve never done before— re-use their medical masks. Every N95 respirator worn by their doctors and nurses across the Houston area are being sent to one place to be cleaned.
So far, they've been able to sanitize over 9,000 masks.
It’s not something you’d see every day, an entire rack of respirators— all of them— recycled.
“We know that it’s a validated process," Director of Clinical Projects for Memorial Hermann TMC Caitlin McVey said.
While it's the first time Memorial Hermann is having to do this, they’ve figured it out. They're using sanitizing equipment they already had.
“We use it for the toys in the children's pavilion. We use it on patient supplies and rooms for isolation patients after they’ve been discharged," McVey said.
And they're bringing in staff who are already trained.
“[Staff] who are used to being in O.R. sterile processing and scrub tech, so they’re use to that kind of environment of clean and dirty," McVey said.
They have set up the system in a room that was, at one time, a blood bank.
Wearing full protective gear, the staff hangs each mask one by one for sterilization.
“That allows the vaporized hydrogen peroxide to flow all around it, and makes sure every surface of that mask does get cleaned," McVey said.
The sanitizing process takes just under two hours, and they can clean up to 1,800 at a time.
Masks from all 14 Memorial Hermann campuses come in to this one room at the Texas Medical Center.
“Everything that we get in, we send back out to the other hospital systems. We do pull away ones that do not pass visual inspection although they had been disinfected and sterilized," McVey said.
If a mask is visibly damaged, or even stained with makeup, it’s pulled to the side.
It’s a tedious and time consuming process, but they know it’s powerful.
“They’re so passionate about it because they know that these masks are going back out to their friends and coworkers in the Memorial Hermann family, and they want to make that the very best product going out as possible," McVey said.
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