Thinking green: modelling respirator reuse strategies to reduce cost and waste.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

To compare the impact of respirator extended use and reuse strategies with regard to cost and sustainability during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Design

Cost analysis.

Setting

USA.

Participants

All healthcare workers within the USA.

Interventions

Not applicable.

Main outcome measures

A model was developed to estimate usage, costs and waste incurred by several respirator usage strategies over the first 6 months of the pandemic in the USA. This model assumed universal masking of all healthcare workers. Estimates were taken from the literature, government databases and commercially available data from approved vendors.

Results

A new N95 respirator per patient encounter would require 7.41 billion respirators, cost $6.38 billion and generate

SUBMITTER: Chu J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8290946 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature