Hospital takes creative approach to preserving mask supply

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The scarcity of N-95 masks has prompted Midland Memorial Hospital to come up with a way to clean those it already has.

The hospital is using ultraviolet germicidal irradiation to sanitize masks used by its workers. According to NewsWest9, employees are able to use them for 16 shifts instead of four.

MMH’s method was inspired by a hospital in Nebraska. Three days into implementing the idea, the results are positive.

“It runs for five minutes and it captures the front side and the backside,” Cindy Wolf, sterile processing supervisor at MMH, said. "It does a 360 of the mask in a room where the airflow is cleaned 10 times every hour."

The new disinfecting process allows a mask to be used up to 16 days, Wolf said. It is just one of the several ways MMH is taking on the novel coronavirus.

Hospital staff clean a few dozen masks every day.