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The largest healthcare provider in the mid-Willamette Valley, Salem Health, is starting to produce its own gowns for its healthcare workers and patients and is collaborating with Nike about how to produce effective face masks.

Despite large donations and drives for equipment like gloves from dentists and veterinarians as well as conservation efforts for the equipment they still have, local hospitals are running short after the outbreak of COVID-19.

Salem Health, which operates hospitals in Salem, Dallas and Woodburn, has 4,900 workers and 494 licensed beds.

After an outpouring of offers, Salem Health is asking for volunteers to help produce nearly 10,000 face masks.

Salem Health Supply Chain Services director Karl Wright said the masks it is working on with Nike would use plastic resin, the same material Nike uses in its running shoe soles as a filtration medium.

Each household may take up to two kits, and each has material for 30 to 50 masks. The masks contain surgical paper fabric, instructions and a bag in which to put the finished product.

Those interested need a sewing machine, white thread, scissors or a rotary cutter, a straight edge and a cutting mask.

The kits will be available at the Town Park security booth in the former Kmart parking lot on Mission Street in Salem and at the West Valley Hospital Parking lot tent in Dallas from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday and from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Friday.

Completed masks may be dropped off at the Salem location from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Monday, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. April 1, from 10 a.m. to noon April 2and from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. April 3.

At the Dallas location, masks can be dropped off from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. April 2 and from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. April 3.

“Knowing there’s a national shortage of PPE (Personal Protective Equipment), we continue to conserve it – and are being selective about what PPE donations we accept and create,” Salem Health said in a statement.

The gowns Salem Health is producing use visqueen plastic sheeting.

When Gov. Kate Brownsigned an executive order March 18 that prevented non-emergency procedures by medical professionals, it made the possibility of hospitals running out of the equipment into a reality.

Some have predicted hospitals will run out of the equipment in days and reports have come in about doctors and nurses are being forced to reuse masks for entire shifts or multiple days as hospitals are in such short supply.

The hashtag #GetMePPE is trending on social media from healthcare workers in need of the equipment.

But there have been no definitive numbers on how long the current supply will last.

Since Brown's executive order, members of the Oregon Dental Association rallied and gathered over 50,000 face masks, hundreds of face shields and gowns and half a million pairs of gloves – enough to fill a storage van – which they donated to the state Tuesday.

“We all get it, we’re all in this together,” said Dr. Norm Auzins, a member of the Oregon Dental Association. “And yes, it is hard to have this all put on us.

“We feel like in a moment of crisis, the centralized system that has rapidly been put together has the highest potential for saving lives in this situation.”

Auzins said dentists around the state knew of the looming shortages before last week’s executive order and on Friday had a conference call between representatives of every county dental society in Oregon.

He said the first collection point was in Multnomah County on Monday and after Tuesday’s drive in Salem at Oak Park Dental, the collection was taken to a Department of Corrections warehouse in Salem, which is being used as an emergency command center, for donation.

The supplies from dentists should make an impact in the shortfall, but hospitals like Salem Hospital received an influx of supplies of masks, gloves and gowns from dental offices immediately after Brown’s executive order.

“We’re certainly taking it right now, which is super helpful,” Salem Health spokesperson Bryce Petersen said. “There has been quite a bit donated. Multiple dental clinics have donated to us.”

Reports from medical professionals working at hospitals have had to re-use their single-use N95 masks as they are in such supply.

The Department of Defense released its stock of N95 masks from military reserves last week.

According to recommendations from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, N95 masks should be discarded following contact with the care area of any patient with an infectious disease.

Disposable masks have long-since replaced the use of cloth masks, though they remain widely used in Asian countries and West Africa.

A 2015 study in Australia showed cloth masks are ineffective, especially compared with N95 masks, which are 99.9% effective.

“One study published a few years ago in the British Medical Journal showed that virus penetration in cloth masks was 97% vs 44% for typical surgical masks indicating that the cloth masks offered very little protection,” Oregon State University Student Health Services Medical director Jeff Mull said.

“The reasons for this are likely related to the fact that the cloth masks have larger openings for the virus to penetrate and retain more moisture which promotes viral transmission.”

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has recommended using homemade masks as a last resort when face masks aren’t available.

bpoehler@StatesmanJournal.com or Twitter.com/bpoehler