Local dentist offers up thousands of PPEs as supplies remain tight
Dec. 8—The PPE panic may be over, but personal protective equipment remains a hot commodity 20 1/2 months into the pandemic, evident in the reception a Bakersfield dentist got this week when he opened up his inventory of coveralls, face shields and gowns.
Crediting a strong supply network he has shared access to since the start of the crisis, the owner of SDDS Dental on Ming Avenue on Tuesday offered up 3,000 coveralls, 1,000 face shields and 500 isolation gowns to Kern County organizations.
By Wednesday afternoon, two organizations had already contacted Dr. Navid Safaei's office to place orders. One, a provider of care for people with developmental disabilities, asked for as many of the coveralls and gowns as it could get its hands on.
Such generosity made big news early on in the pandemic. Local hospitals say although donations have otherwise slowed to a halt, their need for PPEs has remained more or less the same since the start of the crisis.
They say they've been able to diversify their vendor networks but that prices remain elevated, partly because of global supply-chain bottlenecks. Hospital materials management teams continue to work hard to keep stocked.
"It has been nonstop," Adventist Health spokeswoman Megan Simpson said by email Wednesday, adding the materials manager for the company's Bakersfield hospital expressed interest in maybe requesting spare PPEs from the dentist. Adventist's inventory is adequate, she wrote, but some items are on backorder.
Dr. Safaei said in a written statement the donations are meant as a gesture of kindness and goodwill to the community.
"We want to inspire others to put aside our differences and help one another," he wrote. "We want to give back and hope others will, too."
Dental offices like his were ordered closed shortly after COVID-19 first hit California. Safaei said because his office works to maintain a healthy, off-site inventory and enjoys solid supplier relationships, he has been able to make PPEs available to other local organizations throughout the pandemic.
Safaei said he doesn't like the idea of profiting off the crisis at a time his colleagues are searching for supplies and trying to avoid gougers. This is his way of bringing people together at a time of division, he said.
"It's all about togetherness," he wrote. "We need more of that now more than ever."
Memorial Hospital President and CEO Ken Keller said the supply chain for PPEs has loosened as the medical center has diversified its vendors.
But prices remain higher than they were two years ago, he said, and Memorial still uses all the personal protective equipment it can find, even as its consumption fluctuates somewhat along with local demand for COVID-19 medical care.
Keller said generosity has remained constant as part of the community's continuing willingness to pull together to solve tough issues. But he hasn't seen a gesture like Safaei's in a while.
"This is the first time (recently) that I've heard somebody ... donating or giving away equipment that they purchased," he said.
CEO Michelle Oxford at Bakersfield Heart Hospital said in a statement that although PPE prices have come down the medical center has not yet experienced anything like a surplus. She added that Bakersfield Heart is not currently experiencing supply-chain problems.