2020 MEDICAL YEAR IN REVIEW
BCMS Service to Our Members and Community in Need! By Melody Newsom, BCMS Chief Operating Officer
When the novel coronavirus pandemic was declared in March of 2020, no one had an idea of just how this would affect our community or physician members of the Bexar County Medical Society! Early on, the lack of a multitude of items needed to respond to the pandemic in our community was great. From the lack of specimen collection kits and supplies (swabs, viral transport medium (VTM), etc.) to personal protective equipment (PPE), the needs of the medical community became rapidly apparent. When responses to the emergency needs of our community were identified, BCMS reached out to our physician members to help. The physicians stepped up and donated countless test collection kits and supplies so our city could maintain testing capacity of our first responders and medical staffs as the virus was entering our community. The world-wide demand for PPE resulted in major shortages of PPE. Early on, governmental agencies and national stockpile supplies of PPE were mostly earmarked for in-patient settings such as hospitals and nursing facilities. As a result, primary care and out-patient clinics were left with few to no avenues to obtain PPE. The lack of PPE put 30
the physicians, their staff and patients at risk of, and the fear of, contracting COVID-19. In mid-March, a passionate and concerned medical student reached out to BCMS alarmed about the lack of appropriate PPE for the medial professionals where she was working. She and a group of dedicated medical student volunteers, later forming the Strategic Alliance for Emergency Response (SAFER Texas), started soliciting donations of PPE and other supplies. Donations were solicited from multiple sources in the community that had closed their businesses due to the community lockdown and to their being categorized as “non-essential”. The construction industry, distilleries, nail salons, the Vietnamese community and physician practices that were more “elective-procedurebased” were solicited to donate PPE. These donations got the PPE project going and allowed BCMS and SAFER Texas to provide the much-needed PPE to the medical professionals deemed “essential” so they could continue to serve their patients. The response was amazing! Construction companies donated non-medical grade N95s, shoe coverings and overalls. Distilleries, especially Garrison Brothers, donated hundreds
SAN ANTONIO MEDICINE • December 2020
of gallons of isopropyl alcohol for use as hand sanitizer. Nail salons donated gloves and got the Vietnamese community organized to make face shields and cloth masks. You get the picture! Many other individuals, companies and non-profits came together to help the physicians and our medical community. When the supply chains began to open, practices that were not already established PPE customers of reputable PPE suppliers could not obtain the needed PPE. Even when other potential suppliers were identified and contacted, supplies were still very limited and prices were inflated. Since that time, the BCMS/SAFER Texas PPE Project has grown into a full-fledged PPE distribution system to serve the medical community. BCMS’ longstanding relationship with the Southwest Texas Regional Advisory Council (STRAC) has allowed the Society to be the conduit of PPE provided from the Texas Division of Emergency Management (TDEM) to the physicians, not only in Bexar County, but in south Texas. Because of this collaboration, we have been able to help many hundreds of physicians to be able to continue to see patients while keeping their staff, patients and themselves safe.
