Nationwide Glove Shortfall Impacts Minnesota Health Care Providers
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Fighting a pandemic is hard enough. But a year into the COVID crisis, Minnesota health care providers still face PPE shortages. Manufacturers couldn't meet nearly 40% of the demand for gloves last year. That's a shortfall of more than 215 billion gloves.
Pine River Group Home serves people with development disabilities in north central Minnesota. Carrie Guida is its executive director.
"We're doing a lot of personal care for our folks, so it may be helping them with bathing or brushing your teeth," Guida said.
Staff wear gloves for all of it, and can go through dozens in a day.
"The PPE works both ways. It protects our residents from our staff and our staff from our residents," Guida said.
Getting gloves from her normal supplier became challenging over the course of the pandemic, from being told they're backordered to running into exorbitant prices.
"We spend a stupid amount of time just trying to track gloves down. And also the price has probably tripled," Guida said.
Guida says it has created a hardship. They still don't have all the sizes they need, and they pay more for the product they can get.
"It's a matter of, if this is what it's come to, this is what I'm going to do, but what a shame," Guida said.
Prischmann Facial Plastic Surgery in Edina ran into similar issues.
"We have several suppliers, so we called everybody, just couldn't get gloves," Dr. Jessica Prischmann said.
But they had stocked up, and then paid a higher price.
"So far we've been ahead of it, and been able to find gloves, but I worry about the places or clinics that cannot afford to do that," Prischmann said.
And Prischmann wonders why this problem persists.
"Something I would like to hear about is why aren't there U.S. manufacturers of non-latex gloves, and where are these supplies coming from and what's happening here," Prischmann said.
Here's what happened: the demand for gloves increased two to three times. Everyone from health care workers to essential workers to the general public started using them. And, the government started stockpiling them.
"Everybody worldwide wants these gloves for the same reason, and we're relying on the same sources," Matthew Rowan, President of the Health Industry Distributors Association, said.
Rowan said compounding that is 95% are made overseas in Malaysia and China.
"So their capability is key," Rowan said.
While manufacturers ramp up production, he says this will take a long-term solution.
"We need a strategy to diversify the supply chain across all geographies. We think the answer is somewhere in a thoughtful blend across global, near and domestic, sources that would protect in future pandemics," Rowan said.
That doesn't help providers like Guida in the here and now.
"I couldn't have imagined six months ago, I would still be having the problem today. It's just disappointing because I want to provide what I'm supposed to provide," Guida said.
The state is investigating claims like Guida's of price gouging. It's taken at least 40 complaints, ranging from a small-town school district to an individual who uses gloves for their medical condition.
Click here to learn more about filing a price-gouging complaint.
