US Hospitals are stuck in an ‘international bidding war’ for gowns: Critical care nurse

Published on April 29, 2020 By Matthew Chapman


On Wednesday’s edition of MSNBC’s “The Beat,” critical care nurse Amy Pacholk said that the medical supply shortage is very much ongoing — and that states and hospitals are still being forced to fight with each other to buy equipment.

“So I specifically work in just a COVID unit,” said Pacholk. “We at my institution have isolated the COVID patients to just be solely in one place so that if we don’t act as a vector, the health care workers don’t act as a vector if we deal with a positive patient and bring to it a negative patient.”

“That being said, we’re wearing masks, gowns, gloves, helmets and such. In terms of our availability of equipment, our masks are more available now. Now we seem to be having a problem with gowns. There is like an international bidding war for all of the gowns in this country. And the states are bidding against one another. The hospitals are bidding against one another. So the nurses are not only having a problem with masks, they’re having a problem with gowns.”