TABLE.

Institutional Strategies for Conservation of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) during the COVID-19 Pandemic,^a From Least to Most Burdensome

Limit large group rounding.
Dismiss nonessential personnel, such as medical and nursing students.
Cluster care.	Providers can offer to perform nursing tasks during daily rounds so that nursing colleagues may remain outside the room:  Administering medications  Checking vital signs  Assessing intravenous lines  Assessing technologies  Bringing requested bedside items Team members can offer to perform pharmacy, social work, and other ancillary care tasks in the same way.
Call patients instead of revisiting bedside.	Using hospital phones, hospital-provided iPads, patient cell phones, or video chats to do the following:  Check in with patients   Ask clarifying questions   Provide plan-of-care updates  Respond to requests or needs whenever possible
Encourage consultants to use telemedicine or phone calls whenever possible for clinical assessments.
Discharge COVID-19 and non–COVID-19 patients from the hospital as soon as medically ready for discharge.
Create separate care teams and units assigned to known/suspected COVID-19 cases, as permitted by staffing structures, to minimize transmission.
Reallocate a portion of sterile surgical gowns, gloves, and masks for nonoperating-room use.
Reuse PPE.	Reuse disposable goggles with intermittent device sanitization between patients. If permitted by your hospital, follow CDC Crisis Strategiesb:  Use N95 respirators beyond the manufacturer-designated shelf life.  Wear the same N95 respirator for repeated close encounters with several different patients, without removing the respirator. If permitted by your hospital:  Wear the same surgical/droplet mask for repeated close encounters (data are less robust; however, it may still be an appropriate practice).
Evaluate all known/suspected COVID-19 cases using the same PPE before doffing to see nonsuspected cases.
Temporarily suspend PPE use for patients colonized with multidrug resistant organisms.

^aInstitutions should consult with their individual infection preventionist for PPE conservation procedures.

^bCenters for Disease Control and Prevention. Checklist for Healthcare Facilities: Strategies for Optimizing the Supply of N95 Respirators during the COVID-19 Response. www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/checklist-n95-strategy.html. Accessed March 16, 2020.