In this article of the Heartbeat Covid-19 series, we will focus on Nova Scotia's response to the Pandemic.

Equipment needs in the Central Zone was initially a whirl wind as the pandemic spread across the country and the United States. Working closely with colleges in Logistics

, they identified critical care equipment that would be required and procured as quickly as possible. In some case this equipment has still not arrived.

Flag of Nova ScotiaTheir equipment inventory increased in a matter of a couple days:

  • 986 Finger SPO2 Sat Monitors for COVID Assessment Centers
  • 552 Large Volume Infusion Pumps
  • 34 Vital Signs Monitors
  • 6 B650 bedside monitors, 1 central station, 8 telemetry monitoring units
  • 8 B450 Transport monitors for our various ICU’s
  • Added 5 ICU Patient Monitor Systems to PACU B, plus a central monitor with Laser Printer

Quickly the Central Zone changed pre-Covid planning for a province wide infusion pump deployment. Instead 500 stored infusion pumps were prepped and redeployed to ICUs in only a couple of weeks.

Gloved hand shakingHANS Clinical Engineering team received a wide awaking while inspecting third party refurbished ventilators. During the inspection process and follow up with the OEM, the team discovered that the devices had been previously marked for disposal in the country of origin. Showing that thorough inspections are paramount even in time of dire need for life critical equipment.

Covid-19 did not stop the IWK team from moving forward in deploying and upgrading a fleet of 135 beds throughout their facilities. The advantage of moving forward with this rollout of new beds is that the replaced beds would be freed up for use in other areas that had expanded in preparation for a  influx of pandemic patients.

The Central Zone’s Clinical Engineering team dealt with social distancing a little differently. Instead of split shifts or working one week on one week off, they recognized that it would be best not to deplete the team. How best to accomplish social distancing in the workplace then by spreading your team out within the facility, move away from all staff being in one office space.

Additional foresight was taken by the Central Zone in case a large portion of staff was off sick by reaching out to retired staff members to assist if the workforce was depleted. Also, agreements were developed with Facility Maintenance to share staff if needed.

If you are interested to find other Heartbeat articles, you can simply click on this Heartbeat tag (like the one on top of this article) or search it in the top toolbar.