Ventilators and personal protective equipment are sitting unused in closed surgery centers around Atlanta, but getting the supplies to local hospitals is a challenge, foot and ankle surgeon Craig Camasta, DPM, told FOX 5 Atlanta.
Dr. Camasta halted operations at his elective surgery center during the COVID-19 pandemic, like many of the other 350-plus Medicare-certified surgery centers in Atlanta. He estimated that these centers are equipped with around 1,000 ventilators and anesthesia machines.
A coordinated community response is needed to get those supplies to hospitals on the COVID-19 front lines, according to Dr. Camasta.
"Gowns, gloves, masks. There's a lot of that in the community. It just needs to be coordinated, and the state has a record of where all these facilities are," he told FOX 5 Atlanta.
Dr. Camasta even has a group of physicians "willing to get a pickup truck and haul them into the hospitals," but they're unsure whether the donations would be accepted. However, when FOX 5 Atlanta reached out to Atlanta's Emory University Hospital, officials said they're working to coordinate a supply drop-off with Dr. Camasta's surgery center.
Dr. Camasta wants other surgery centers to find ways to get needed equipment to hospitals on the COVID-19 front lines.
"It seems we're being a little more reactive than proactive to try and get these to where they need to be used the most," he said.