On Mar. 24, 2020, Nebraska Medicine has developed a safe and effective method to decontaminate single-use personal protective equipment, or PPE, so they can be used multiple times. A team led by John Lowe, Ph.D., University of Nebraska Medical Center assistant vice chancellor for inter-professional health security training and education, is using ultraviolet light towers to irradiate high numbers of masks, which were originally designed to only be used once.

The strategy will allow Nebraska Medicine to greatly extend its supply of these items during the coronavirus pandemic. The decontamination of these items works like this: groups of masks are safely bagged and transported to a room inside the hospital which is equipped with two ultraviolet light towers. The PPE is hung on wires stretching the length of the room and then decontaminated when the lights are powered on. The items are then removed and returned to the original owners for reuse.

Their staff members have been provided with instructions on how to safely remove their PPE and place in bags for transport to the decontamination room.