Decontaminating N95 Respirators for Reuse in a Hospital Setting

Healthc Q. 2021 Jan;23(4):35-38. doi: 10.12927/hcq.2020.26395.

Abstract

With the global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, hospitals in Canada and around the world have been forced to consider conservation strategies to ensure continued availability of personal protective equipment (PPE) for healthcare providers. To mitigate critical PPE shortages, Sinai Health System (Sinai Health), a large academic healthcare institution in Canada, has developed and operationalized a standard operating procedure for the collection, decontamination and reuse of N95 respirators and other single-use PPE using a vaporized hydrogen peroxide decontamination method. Sinai Health has incorporated stringent quality assurance steps to ensure that the N95 respirators are successfully decontaminated without deformation and are safe to use.

MeSH terms

  • COVID-19 / prevention & control
  • Cross Infection / prevention & control
  • Decontamination / methods*
  • Equipment Contamination / prevention & control*
  • Equipment Reuse* / standards
  • Equipment and Supplies, Hospital* / adverse effects
  • Equipment and Supplies, Hospital* / standards
  • Equipment and Supplies, Hospital* / virology
  • Humans
  • N95 Respirators* / adverse effects
  • N95 Respirators* / standards
  • N95 Respirators* / virology
  • SARS-CoV-2