Facilities Management donates gloves and surgical gowns for first responders

Auburn University’s Department of Facilities Management recently donated 180 surgical gowns and 1,000 pair of gloves to help safeguard health care workers at the Auburn University Medical Clinic and the East Alabama Medical Center, or EAMC, from COVID-19.

“It is very important for people on the front lines to have personal protective equipment such as gloves and gowns. This equipment is critical to health care workers’ safety,” said Dr. Fred Kam, medical director of the Auburn University Medical Clinic. “Being able to acquire these items has been hard because there is a worldwide shortage. Every little bit helps.”

According to Executive Director of Facilities Operations Dan Whatley, when the email came out from the university stating that EAMC could use additional personal protective equipment, or PPE, Facilities Management began thinking of ways to help.

“We started by comparing the needed items to what we keep in stock to determine if we had PPE that could be shared," said Whatley. “We looked at our current inventory and paired that with the rate at which we have been using the items recently and projecting future use. It was then that we identified that we could donate a number of gloves and gowns. We donated as many as we felt we could at this time without compromising the ability to provide the needed PPE for our Facilities team.

“We are all in this together,” he said. “Helping equip front line medical workers with needed PPE was a way that we were able to pitch in.”

In Facilities Management, custodians wear the gloves daily while cleaning. Plumbers use them when they are dealing with sanitary sewer issues. The surgical gowns in stock are not part of the standard PPE for Campus Services employees but were purchased in preparation for the unknown. 

The Campus Services and Materials Management Departments within Facilities Management stepped in to make sure both donations were packaged and delivered to the University Medical Clinic.

”We understand health care workers critically need these items, and the gowns will be more useful to them than sitting on our warehouse shelves going unused, said Dee Sneed, Facilities Management’s director of campus services. “It was our honor to donate the gowns.”