SE Twin Cities

Community support in Owatonna, Minnesota, is helping keep health care facilities together as the coronavirus pandemic takes its toll on staff members of local hospitals. 

Dave Albrecht, president of the Owatonna Hospital and District One in Fairbault, said the community support encourages employees and helps with their emotional anxiety, according to SouthernMinn. 

“At this point the community support has been just tremendous,” Albrecht told SouthernMinn. “It’s very important and very encouraging to our employees who are all going through a lot of emotional anxiety with this situation.”

People are donating anything from Girl Scout cookies to meals from restaurants, but what has been the most helpful is the donation of personal protective equipment (PPE), Albrecht told SouthernMinn.

“Nationally these items are in short supply,” Albrecht told SouthernMinn. “Right now we are working in a heavy mode of conserving our PPE, which is why the cloth masks that have been donated are so important and why we really appreciate them, especially the home-sewn ones.”

Cloth masks can help conserve the hospitals' supplies of surgical and N95 masks, especially since administrative staff use the cloth masks since they have very little contact with patients, Albrecht told SouthernMinn. He also said visitors and non-COVID-19 patients have been using the cloth masks.

“These masks are not worn to protect the person wearing it – they won’t be able to do that,” Albrecht told SouthernMinn. “But it does prevent the person wearing it from spreading anything that they may be carrying. Everyone, including Public Health (officials), is emphasizing the importance of these masks in preventing the spread of COVID-19.”

Local businesses and organizations have been donating face shields and goggles, which also help conserve N95 mask, Albrecht said. 

Bob Ayers, owner of FoamCraft Packaging in Owatonna, is collaborating with other local businesses to produce face masks for health care workers, according to SouthernMinn.

“It is always important to support our hospitals,” Ayers told SouthernMinn. “They’re kind of on an island right now, so anything we can do to keep up their morale and let them know that we are here for them we’re going to do.”

Any PPE donated to an Allina Health hospital is sent to a separate facility for sorting and cleaning, Albrecht told SouthernMinn. It's then packaged and sent to whichever hospital needs it them most. 

“It’s a nationwide shortage of PPE, so we have to conserve now because nobody really knows what this surge is going to bring and what we’re going to need then,” Albrecht told SouthernMinn. “But knowing that there is community support and the number of instances where businesses and people in the community have offered support, just knowing that the community has our back is comforting.”