As many of you have already discovered, the Kansas Division of Emergency Management has directed the local EMs to only provide face shields to dental offices at this time.
The formal response received this morning by the KDA office is below:
“The State Emergency Operations Center (SEOC) is able to provide face shields at the request of county emergency managers to provide to the dental health professionals. Unfortunately, at this time, we do not have an adequate supply of N95 masks, surgical masks, gloves, and gowns. As shipments arrive and we are able to fulfill requests to those front line health providers and first responders who are providing direct COVID-19 patient care, then we will be in a better position to provide additional PPE. Dental offices should contact their county emergency management office to request face shields. Normal supply lines are required to be used first, and we recognize that all sectors are having challenges much like the state in receiving our PPE orders.”
This is very disappointing, and the KDA continues to work on access to PPE for dental offices.
For those of you that already have N95 or KN95 respirators, below is a link to the new Battelle system mask decontamination resource, which has been set up by KDHE to assist healthcare providers.
