Levy County Public Safety Director Mitch Harrell declined to release information concerning the self-quarantine of one of his ambulance crews due to the federal medical privacy act.
By Terry Witt – Spotlight Senior Reporter
Levy County’s ambulance paramedics and EMTs are on the front lines of the battle against the Covid-19 virus but the N95 respirator masks they use to filter the air are in short supply nationally.
Department of Public Safety Director Mitch Harrell said he ordered more N95 masks Thursday morning through the Florida Emergency Operations Center because traditional supply channels aren’t working.
“The issue is we can’t get N95s through normal channels. We’ve been trying and they’ve been back ordered for weeks,” Harrell said. “Am I where I would like to be, no sir, but I’m not worried about us running out over the weekend.”
An N95 mask fits snugly on the face to protect the user from airborne particles that might make them sick. Doctors and hospitals use them in surgical settings and emergency rooms.
In the past, Levy County paramedics and EMTs used the masks primarily for critically ill patients who needed to be intubated to receive oxygen or other delicate procedures, but in the Covid-19 crisis, they wear the masks when they suspect someone might be sick with the virus. More masks are being used than would normally be the case.
“Under normal circumstances, we have enough to last a year and maybe longer but with this, we could be running out pretty quick, so we went ahead and ordered more because we can’t get it through the normal supply chains,” he said.
He said he isn’t where he needs to be with protective sanitary gowns either, but there is no danger of running out of gowns for now. Additional gowns have also been ordered through the state.
Harrell said procedures are in place to protect ambulance crews. He said sheriff’s office dispatchers read questions from a Covid-19 card to get a sense of whether the person calling for an ambulance might have contracted the virus or could have been in contact with someone who may have traveled to a Coronavirus hotspot in a foreign country. Covid-19 is the disease caused by the Coronavirus.
According to Harrell, when the ambulance arrives at the home of the person who called for help, one member of the crew walks in and stands six feet away from the person to ask questions that would give them some idea of whether the patient is exhibiting signs of being infected by the virus. The crew member will notify his co-workers if N95 masks are needed. If not, other members of the ambulance crew along with perhaps municipal firefighters will remove the patient and load them on the ambulance for transport to a hospital.
“We’re wearing masks until we confirm it’s not a potential Covid-19 or exhibiting Covid-19 symptoms. We’re assuming they have it. It’s the only way we can keep our guys safe. We’re doing things to try to make sure we’re being safe and not exposing our folks to something until we know for sure what we’re dealing with, like standing back asking questions; asking if they have traveled, asking if they have a fever; asking how about their symptoms and stuff. If they say I’m having shortness of breath, I’m having a fever, I’ve had flu-like symptoms for the last whatever and I’m experiencing whatever they called about, we’re going to put on a mask and we’re going to wear it,” Harrell said.
Harrell said if the answers to their questions indicate the patient might have contracted Covid-19, the crew will wear a N95 mask and place a mask on the patient to prevent the patient from coughing, sneezing or breathing particles of the virus into the air and infecting the crew.
“We’re trying to rule it out and (sheriff’s office) dispatch is asking some of these questions along with it to give us a heads up before we get there so we have a better idea of what we’re getting into before we get there,” Harrell said. “There’s a special dispatch card they use and they’re asking about the flu-like symptoms. We’re doing everything we can to limit our exposure and for folks exposure,” Harrell said.
Last weekend Harrell was forced to self-quarantine an ambulance crew after they came into contact with a woman who thought she may have been exposed to the Covid-19. The crew is back in service after the woman tested negative for the disease. But Harrell said he is preparing for the possibility that more than one crew could be sidelined for exposure to Covid-19.
“Let’s say if the numbers get as bad as they say they could possibly get; then we got to worry about putting trucks on the road, we got to worry about keeping crews on the road because the more exposure we have the more likelihood we’re going to get someone exposed,” Harrell said. “So we’re trying to limit that by not allowing visitors at the stations, no extra riders on ambulances. We’ve told the College of Central Florida that the paramedic students couldn’t ride. We are trying to limit exposure and practice some of the social distancing and reducing people around each other so we’re not part of the problem.”
Harrell said there is a way of reusing the N95 masks by placing a procedure mask over the N95 and then throwing away the procedure mask after using it, but he said that process would never have been used in cases like the one where crew came into contact with a person suspected of having the virus and was quarantined for a time.
“If we had someone we were highly suspicious of like the patient we quarantined our guys for, they would have to throw the N95 mask away along with everything else like their gowns. We would throw it away or decontaminate it,” Harrell said. “But if there’s a fever and the person has no underlying issue and no travel and they haven’t been in contact with someone who was out of the country, they can use the procedure mask on top of the N95 mask and then take the procedure mask and throw it away. The health department yesterday gave us 300 procedure masks,” Harrell said.
Harrell said there are unknowns with Covid-19.
“We don’t know how long this is going to be, we don’t know how many people we’re going to see that may have it,” Harrell said.
For the time being, ambulance crews are following screening guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the health department as to whether the patient could potentially be showing signs of the virus. If there are any indications the patient might be exhibiting symptoms of Covid-19, the paramedics and EMTs treat them as though they have the virus. Thus far, no one in Levy County has tested positive for the virus.
“Until proven otherwise, including as we had to do earlier, we will quarantine a crew until we find out different. We’re trying, we’re trying, but this is uncharted territory. In 37 years of doing this I haven’t been through something like this,” Harrell said. “Our guys are trained to deal with this, but it has come to the forefront and by no means am I saying this is like the flu, because it’s not. This is probably changing the way we look at what we do, I believe, and it makes us better for going through it.”
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Enterprise Reporting by Terry Witt March 20, 2020; Posted March 20, 2020
