As the Covid-19 pandemic began to spread nationwide, Than Moore, a physician’s assistant at UVM Medical Center, began to notice two problems that he suspected might have one solution.
The first was the cancellation of commencements at high schools and colleges nationwide. The second was the global shortage of personal protective equipment for health care workers.
Moore thought that the thousands of canceled graduation ceremonies offered an opportunity: Why not repurpose gowns as part of the protective gear needed for health care workers who are struggling to find enough supplies during the pandemic? To answer that question, he launched a website to help grads and healthcare workers make the connection.
In less than a week, Moore said demand for the gowns is already in the thousands.
“There are doctors and nurses using trash bags as makeshift gowns right now,” Moore said. “Those don’t cover your arms or your legs. We’re just trying to provide some sort of protective barrier between doctors and patients.”
The gowns aren’t a perfect replacement, Moore said, but he said healthcare workers make adjustments as needed, pinning back sleeves and wearing the gowns backwards, to avoid loose sleeves and deep v-necks.
He said right now, they’re trying to get the gowns to the hospitals that need them most, largely in and around New York City.
Another factor he’s thinking about is proximity. Moore said his site is set up to get gowns to hospitals in the same geographic area as the people donating them, to help eliminate the time and cost of shipping.
To cover shipping costs, Moore has set up a GoFundMe page and has already raised more than $1,800 to help cover the cost.
Moore and his friends from UVM, where he is getting an MBA, decided to launch the project together after talking over the idea with a few of their professors.
He said at the UVM Medical Center, where he works largely with patients with either confirmed or suspected cases of Covid-19, the hospital has yet to run out of proper PPE. But he said it has become scary to go to work, and would be even more so if supplies dwindle.
“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little nervous to go to work,” Moore said. “Our protocols are switching every day, and we’re just doing the best we can to adapt.”
Moore said there isn’t a set goal for how many gowns they’d like to distribute. Their objective is to ensure “anyone and everyone” with an extra graduation gown can make a donation to health care workers who could use them.
Learn more about the project at www.gowns4good.net.
