NY Hospital PPE Rulemaking: Quick Response Needed from Our Industry

Linen and uniform services with New York State hospital customers have a fast-disappearing opportunity to help make reusable isolation gowns and other protective garments a higher priority in their personal protective equipment (PPE) inventories. The state Department of Health has issued a request to hospitals to recommend by Dec. 30 methodology to revise PPE stockpile rules.

Current such regulations are set to expire in January. The department seeks to ensure patients and personnel are protected properly if supply chains are disrupted as they were when COVID-19 struck. Hospitals are urged to identify academic studies, federal standards, or other state standards or laws that reflect independent, third-party recommendations for maintaining a 60-day PPE stockpile.

It’s unclear which hospitals received the request. Ames Linen Service, Cortland, NY, learned of the request through a hospital customer Dec. 15. This TRSA member company is supporting the hospital management’s submission by providing them with TRSA’s position paper on strengthening the healthcare supply chain with reusable textiles.

More data that could be helpful in providing such support is available here. This webpage links to tools and data from TRSA and other sources that make the case for reusables as an alternative to disposables in several product categories including isolation gowns.