Residents do their part to help protect GRH workers

Apr. 14--Patrick Flynn with masks.JPG

Patrick Flynn, manager of the Grand Ronde Hospital Foundation, receives 103 hand-made masks on Friday, April 3, for hospital staff. Diane Hedrick, retired nurse, and Cheryl Simpson, retired social worker, organized a group of volunteers to sew the face masks for the hospital.

Contributed photo by Cheryl Simpson

LA GRANDE -- When reports of personal protective equipment for doctors, nurses and others on the hospital front lines of the coronavirus started popping up nationwide, several Union County residents reached out to Grande Ronde Hospital staff to see what the care facility needed.

"I reached out to a few of my friends (at the hospital) and as well to the director of nursing, Beth Callison," said Diane Hedrick, a retired nurse who now serves on the Board of Directors of the Oregon Nurses Association. "She assured me they were in good shape, but we had the conversation about the fabric masks and whether there was a place for them, and we went from there."

Cheryl Simpson also reached out to the hospital.

"We wanted to know whether or not our local health care providers were safe," she said.

Design gets hospital OKThe two were linked up and in the last two weeks -- joined by a network of about 40 volunteers, Simpson said -- have been able to deliver more than 150 cloth masks to the hospital. What's more, the mask, which Hedrick designed and the hospita approved, can be reinforced with additional filtering to increase its effectiveness.

"I borrowed the design from one that had been approved for use in the PeaceHealth system," she said. "Our pattern is different in that it doesn't have elastic, it has ties. In my research, the ties were preferable."

In all, Grande Ronde has received close to 200 masks from the public, and more are sure to come in the coming days and weeks.

Abby Stonebreaker, the hospital's digital media and public relations specialist, said the hospital began receiving inquiries about masks in mid-March. Stonebreaker, who became the liaison for those reaching out to the hospital, said with the changing guidelines for PPE at the time, nailing down how they would use the masks -- given cloth masks wouldn't be used for those treating patients -- was tricky.

"We knew going into this that cloth masks aren't capable of protecting our front-line staff from COVID-19 the same way that a commercially-produced medical mask does, so we wanted to be sure we had a plan to use these masks prior to accepting donations," she said.

Staff not on those front lines could use the washable mask, which have two layers and are about 8x8 inches, Hedrick said, and are hemmed at the bottom. The hem can hold in a hepa filter, which increases the strength of the mask. Stonebreaker said the hospital gave its OK for the mask on March 31.

"I was pleased that that's where we're going to be able to help with that," Hedrick said.

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Community responds to appealSimpson, meanwhile, worked on gathering volunteers who wanted to sew masks. Through a Facebook appeal, word of mouth and the sewing network of the area, a group of about 40 people have come together to make masks, and Simpson said the numbers are increasing.

"Every week there is a couple more people," she said. "We continue to look for additional sewers."

Simpson's home became the drop-off point for the masks, and she set up a method to be sure masks could be delivered while limiting the spread of the coronavirus.

"In order to keep the social distance that we believe is important there is a bag hung on the front gate of my home," she said. "People drop the masks that are sealed in the receiving bag. I put all the individual bags together and give them to the GRH Foundation, the receiver of the bags."

Simpson and Hedrick on April 3 delivered 103 masks to the foundation, and brought about half that total up the following week. Simpson said the numbers were lower for the second drop off because of residents making masks for their own families. The hospital launders the masks before staff don them.

"They will continue to take masks as long as we can provide them," Simpson said.

Hedrick said masks also are going home with front-line workers.

"When we were talking with Patrick (Flynn) who is (manager of) the foundation he said that at this point they're using them in places in the hospital, but they want to be able to send a mask home with the front line workers," she said.

People who have a sewing machine and are interested in helping can contact Simpson at [email protected], or can find the guidelines for the masks at grh.org/covid-19.

Stonebreaker expressed appreciation for those who have come together to help, and said Simpson and Hedrick were instrumental in helping to "get the project off the ground."

"It's very important to us that we honor these donations," Stonebreaker said. "They're truly a labor of love."

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