(March 2021) – As I was getting ready for work this morning and listened to the local news, I heard the best story! The University of Kansas Health System St. Francis Campus in Topeka had ZERO COVID-19 patients! This is the first time they have not had a COVID-19 patient since March 17 of last year. You can only imagine the relief from all the frontline workers.

As a support service to those frontline workers, I can only sit back and remember listening to all the news in November/December 2019 of what was happening in China. I remember the day that my buyer and I were discussing what we had heard and seen on the news the night before. The day was December 24, 2019, and we decided we were going to start ordering heavy on personal protective equipment.

Today, I can say I am so glad we listened to our gut! We already had a three-to-four-month supply of normal usage PPE by the end of February. We wanted to get to at least a six-month supply; so, the first week of March, we ordered heavy and hit that goal. Then we started getting the dreaded allocation report from our distributor. The first one had 20 items. Then every report that followed had more items.

As we moved into the OMG phase of COVID-19, we placed disposable orders for our controlled air-purifying respirators we had just received in early February. We had ordered four. Thank goodness we had these later in the summer, as our COVID-19 patients didn't appear until late summer.

We were able to keep afloat with our stock because of the steps we took early on and due to several bulk purchases we were able to jump on at strategic points in 2020.

To be able to say, "We did not run out of anything and have lived to talk about it!" is the best thing that can be said about 2020. And while all of this was going on, we also opened two new clinics and purchased an existing clinic that needed a complete overhaul.

To say we are exhausted is an understatement, and we are a Critical Access Hospital. Our experience was nothing compared to what larger facilities have endured. Our hats are off to all of them, all of the frontline workers and all the supporting cast of hard workers.

As COVID-19 begins to come to, what I hope is, an end, I pray everyone has and will continue to take care of themselves and their families. Nothing is more important than those you love.

This summer, please take some time to enjoy each other and some time to yourself. Everyone in Supply Chain needs to take a breather and pat themselves on the back. WE SURVIVED!!
--Lisa Feil-Neavitt