Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital medical staff who are caring for Covid-19 patients are using locally-made face shields.
The hospital said Cottage clinicians worked with a coalition of local entities to create the shields, including a professor at UC Santa Barbara, Eric McFarland, MD, PhD, who is a former emergency department physician at Cottage Hospital; Matt Silva of Implantech; and local engineer and entrepreneur Ray Karam.
The powered air-purifying respirator, or PAPR, face shield is recommended to protect caregivers and meets safety standards. The PAPR has a fan in the helmet portion that pulls air from the room and runs it through a HEPA filter to remove more than 99 % of airborne pathogens, the hospital said in a statement.
Cottage Hospital staff has received 188 face shields to protect medical staff.
800 additional face shields are expected by April 20.
