Several nursing homes across the nation have reportedly received defective and unusable protective equipment -- including paper-thin surgical masks -- as part of a major federal initiative to address their urgent need for medical gear.

In late April, the Trump administration announced an effort to ship supplies to nursing homes, putting the Federal Emergency Management Agency at the helm of the initiative. A spokeswoman for the agency said they sent nearly 13,700 packages of gloves, gowns, masks, and eye protection as of Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reports.

While many nursing homes have received their packages, some have encountered problems with the shipments.

Useless PPEs

A spokesperson for Genesis HealthCare claimed two of their nursing home centers in Massachusetts and Virginia received isolation gowns that were missing holes for hands to slip through.

Randy Bury, chief executive of a Sanford Health nonprofit, claimed most of the masks were too small for adults, and the ear loops were too loose. He also said the gloves were too small.

Noah Marco, the chief medical officer of the Los Angeles Jewish Home, called the blue gowns they received "embarrassingly unusable." The gowns, he said, were too large, forcing staffers to use tape to secure them.

Investigation

As stories of unmarked boxes with no return addresses gain traction, providers demanded an investigation into the claims of faulty equipment.

In a Thursday letter written by president and CEO of LeadingAge, Katie Smith Sloan, she urged U.S. Vice President Mike Pence to launch a probe into the "mounting evidence" that showed FEMA's shipments of PPE, which were delayed, were stocked with expired protective equipment. She also claimed the quantities delivered were insufficient to help protect the staff and residents inside nursing homes in the country.

According to a report by Skilled Nursing News, members of LeadingAge, a nonprofit nursing home trade group, received shipments that failed to meet a full week's supply. A facility in Columbia contained only 1,800 gloves and 398 surgical masks when it needed 14,000 and 3,850 for a week, respectively. The FEMA packages also did not include N95 respirators, face shields, or hand sanitizers.

A facility in California also noted that while they did receive respirators in the shipment, the products included were expired, rendering them unusable.

 "We received masks that had been sitting in storage for years and are past expiration date; we got cloth masks (not PPE): we got N95 masks that were not usable because the elastic broke," an operator told LeadingAge.

FEMA Response

A spokesperson for FEMA addressed the concerns, claiming the gear it supplied met the requirements set by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. But due to the growing number of complaints, the agency requested a short instructional video from the contractor, the spokesperson said.

The contractors, Federal Resources Supply Co., also responded to the concerns, claiming it had shipped a mix of glove sizes from approved sources. The company also claimed the blue plastic gowns exceeded the standard required by their contract with the Defense Logistics Agency.


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