A collaboration between Harris Health System and the University of Houston (UH) is supporting companies that are unable to fulfil emergency requests for medical face shields in hospitals caring for COVID-19 patients
Faced with the challenge of ensuring supply of the critical personal protective equipment (PPE) to doctors and nurses at the Ben Taub and Lyndon B.
Johnson hospitals, Harris Health reached out to UH’s Gerald D.
Hines College of Architecture and Design for help.
Answering the call was Aaron McEuen, instructional lab manager of the college’s Burdette Keeland Jr.
Design Exploration Center, whose lab was able to replicate and prototype a face shield supplied to them within 24 hours.
Today, the school is creating hundreds of medical face shields that will soon be delivered to Harris Health’s hospitals.
With an initial order of 500, more are expected as the pandemic continues.
Using universal laser cutters, the lab can perform vector cuts to create the semi-circular plastic see-through face shields.
In a single setting, the laser cutters can produce up to 10 face shields in three minutes.
Assembly of the lightweight shields takes a little longer.
Dr.
Esmaeil Porsa, Harris Health System president and CEO, describes the achievement as "a great example of how people come together to address a common and dire need", adding:
"I want to personally thank the staff and leadership of University of Houston for stepping up and leading the way to help Harris Health care for our communities in the safest possible way."
Chris Okezie, vice president of system operations for Harris Health System, adds:
"Harris Health has had an education and training relationship with the University of Houston and its students for years, but never an aspect where the school is providing Harris Health with vital medical supplies.
"I’m sure making face shields were never on Aaron and his team’s radar a few weeks ago.
They basically had to retool and repurpose their labs to make this happen."
"Aaron and his team are wonderful and amazing people who have stepped up to help the community during its time of need."
McEuen admits face shields was not a consideration before the current health crisis but confesses: "Honestly, it’s nice to be productive.
"I know a lot of people are cooped up in their houses,” he says. “We’re lucky to have the opportunity to contribute."
One of the biggest hurdles for the project has been waiting for necessary raw materials to create the face shields.
Most shipping and delivery services are experiencing major delays because of the heavier-than-usual delivery demands seen across the United States.
Patricia Belton Oliver, dean of UH’s Gerald D.
Hines College of Architecture and Design, says:
"We are committed to supporting Houston during this unprecedented pandemic.
"Our collaboration with Harris Health System utilizes, in a small way, our expertise in design and fabrication and its power to safeguard our community’s healthcare workers as they fight COVID-19".
