A Message from the CMS Executive Director

PPE-AN ACRONYM THAT MEANS LIFE By Pam Irwin, CMS Executive Director I have a son in the Army, so I'm used to acronyms. I had not heard of PPE before March. Now, I'll never forget it or what it means to the physicians and others who need it. It started with a suggestion by Dr. Ray Bellamy on March 23rd. Some dental and medical practices are temporarily shuttered or seeing patients by telehealth only and might have Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) that they could donate to those still seeing patients in their offices. It started slowly. A few N95 masks were received. My Dad called from Mobile, Alabama, and said the Medical Society of Mobile County was on the news about collecting PPE for physicians. I looked up the news video and visited the medical society's website. Rosalie Carlin created a professional donation request image to post on social media. The Capital Medical Society Foundation's PPE effort officially launched. Then, I received a phone call from Jeff Burlew at the Tallahassee Democrat. We are Facebook friends. He'd seen our post and wanted to interview me about what we were doing, why it mattered, and what we needed. The article he wrote was picked up by the news media and on the local news, and my new nickname in the office became "RADAR." This endearing member of the M*A*S*H cast had legendary abilities to secure the most hard-to-find items needed for their M*A*S*H unit. The real story is about the donors who are helping meet the PPE needs of physicians. Hospitals are prioritized to receive PPE. They should be. However, physicians in practice outside of hospitals have a significant need for PPE as well. The pipeline of resources to them has not been as abundant. With the help of many new connections, we have made inroads in securing PPE. An Aaron's Furniture manufacturer in Cairo, GA, makes face masks. I received an email from Greg Cohen, owner of Lofty Pursuits. He connected me to Will Hawe of Making Awesome. Will is committed to producing and donating face shields made by his team on 3D printers. Visiting his location, I watched him trying to make face shields, hole-punch the plastic shields, and make deliveries. How could we help him? Dr. John and Barb Mahoney became hole punchers for the face shields. We used social media to call for others with 3D printers that could be referred to Will's team to also produce face shields. Local schools with 3D printers have joined the face shield collaboration. Through Will, I learned that the Innovation Hub at FSU had been closed as non-essential by FSU's General Counsel. Since they are able to make face shields, many in the community disagreed. I emailed President Thrasher who understood the need and began efforts to get a waiver for them to reopen. President Thrasher connected me to Emily Pritchard at the Innovation Hub. While we wait for the Innovation Hub's door to open, she connected me to a supply chain resource in Monticello, who is getting quicker turn-around on orders for N95 masks, surgical masks, and face shields. We began taking preorders from practices. The CMS Foundation pays the supplier; the practices reimburse the CMS Foundation. The board room is our PPE triage area for deliveries. Dr. Celeste Hart suggested a Tallahassee man contact me. He is in the tradeshow business and was successfully receiving KN95 masks from China. He offered his help. On behalf of the CMS Foundation, I took pre-orders for over 4,000 KN95 face masks on a Saturday in five hours. We decided to try two orders of 500 to see if they would make it through customs. We were not required to make any payment until they arrived. Two weeks later, I got the text that they were in Tallahassee. The invoicing and distribution began. A new order for 2,000 was submitted. Those arrived in one week and were available for delivery within four hours of being dropped off at the CMS office. We will continue to fill the original requests and move on to a maintenance level. There have been incomprehensible solutions that could only have been divinely orchestrated. Last week, Dr. Gao from the Digestive Disease Clinic, asked if I had any N95 masks. I shared we had no donated ones but were about to take pre-orders. I asked about the need. She shared that some non-elective G.I. procedure patients were hesitant to have surgery in a hospital setting at this time and were opting for their non-elective procedures to be done at DDC. She said they had to close because they were out of N95 masks. That was 4:00 p.m. At 5:00 p.m., a lab director from

the FSU Dept. of Biological Science arrived at the CMS door. He was carrying a box N95 masks – 117 N95 masks. After offering profuse thanks, I went back to my office and contemplated the chances of that many N95 masks arriving at one time. I didn't have Dr. Gao's or Dr. Rodriguez's cell phone numbers, so I called CMS's past President Dr. Josh Somerset. He explained the need. I asked him to reach out to Dr. Rodriguez to confirm. I was not giving away 117 N95 masks to one practice unless it would reopen their surgery theatre. They confirmed that they needed the N95 masks and face shields. I got home around 8 p.m. that night and received a text message from the son of a past Rotary Club of Tallahassee member. He resides in Louisiana but is weathering the pandemic with his parents in Tallahassee. He had 25 face shields for me to pick up that night. My sidekick Rowdy, a German Short-haired Pointer, and I went in pursuit of the masks. The next day, Dr. Andres Rodriquez gratefully received 117 N95 masks and 25 shields. "Thank you so much for the masks. We had to close for lack of masks. Patients really don't want to go to the hospital if they can avoid it for obvious reasons. Even with restrictions on elective cases, there are many who need procedures. If we can stay open to keep people out of the E.R. or inpatient hospital, that should help as COVID-19 cases increase in the area. Thanks again. We, our staff and patients, are all appreciative. Just like our CMS mission statement attests! Andres (P.S.: here's my cell number)."

Pam Irwin (far right) delivers much-needed PPE to Dr. Andres Rodriguez (far left) and Nicki Thomson (middle) with Digestive Disease Clinic.

That same evening, I received another text from Emily Pritchard at the Innovation Hub at FSU. I didn't see it until the next morning. "You will receive a call from Greg about 5,000 surgical masks to be donated." Although most of my donation deliveries and pickups feel a bit like clandestine drug deals since they all occur in parking lots, I was not anticipating the next transaction. Greg Boebinger, Director of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, asked me to meet him at his home. Piled high on a dolly was Army-green, plastic tarp-wrapped boxes of surgical masks shipped by their Chinese counterpart in the Wuhan Province. The Chinese National Magnetic Lab just wanted to support their partners in Tallahassee. Those 5,000 surgical masks are now in the hands of those who need them. Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare received 2,500. Others went to Tallahassee Primary Care Associates, North Florida Women's Care, and Southern Vitreoretinal Associates. Dr. Faisal Munasifi traded 30 surgical masks for a box of 20 small N95 masks. Southeastern Center for Infectious Disease requested the small masks.

Pam Irwin and Rosalie Carlin sort and coordinate distribution of the surgical masks received from the U.S. and Chinese National Magnetic Labs.

The Capital Medical Society and the Capital Medical Society Foundation hope that our efforts are helping to protect our physicians and their staff. What started as a suggestion has become a full-time operation at the CMS office. We have distributed:

5,000 surgical masks 2,960 KN95 masks 400 face shields 300 N95 masks 200 shoe booties

Stay healthy!