Effective Thursday, April 9 at 5 a.m. for Inpatient and Outpatient Locations
Effective Friday, April 10 at 5 a.m. for ASB, Prestige, Austin Landing, NOCC, Incident Command, and Ridgeleigh Terrace
Kettering Health Network is expanding personal protection equipment (PPE) distribution by offering isolation masks at entry screening stations for all employees, physicians, providers, vendors, contractors, and students—anyone that performs care or services at our network sites.
Both patient-facing employees and non-patient facing employees will be offered one issued PPE mask per shift and one brown paper bag for storage.
Definitions:
Patient-facing employees: Spend more than 15 minutes within six feet of patients as part of their normal workflow.
Non-patient facing patient employees: Do not spend more than 15 minutes within six feet of patients as part of their normal workflow
Isolation masks will be offered to patient-facing employees: physicians/providers and all staff providing direct patient care.
Non-patient facing employees may choose to accept an isolation mask or may bring in a cloth mask from home.
For non-patient facing employees bringing in cloth masks from home
- Employees are responsible to launder the mask daily
- Mask design must be professionally appropriate and approved by their manager
N95 Masks:
Employees working on designated units, ED, and procedural areas will obtain their N95 mask and brown bag at their unit/department.
*Please Note: All working employees, physicians, providers, and ancillary team members who work in the ED will receive an N95 mask at their unit.
Employees are expected to adhere to recommended processes surrounding proper mask use. See policy IC-Isolation Precautions and prior Incident Command Communication: KHN Designated Care Unit Standard Operating Procedures, Employee Notice: PPE Reminders, Necessary Personal Protective Equipment Sign
As a reminder:
- Masks must be properly worn, inspected, maintained, and replaced as necessary by the employee.
- Masks must be properly removed, cleaned, and stored or disposed of, as applicable, to avoid contamination of self, others, or the environment.
- Employees must perform hand hygiene before and after handling their masks.
- When an employee is not working face-to-face or in a direct patient care environment, masks may be removed and stored in a paper bag. Please note that masks should be folded so the outer surface is folded against itself, and employees should write their name on the bag.
- Isolation masks and brown paper bags are to be discarded at the end of shift. Use hand hygiene before and after handling.
- As a reminder, N95 masks are to be placed in the identified collection bin for reprocessing and brown paper bags are to be discarded.
Videos for proper donning, doffing and storing mask in brown bag:
QUICK REMINDER: Cloth mask covers over isolation masks or N95 masks are not approved at this time. See Incident Command Communication: Surgical Mask Covers
Patients and Visitors:
At this time, only patients exhibiting respiratory illness symptoms will be provided an isolation mask.