Columbus Regional Hospital is benefiting from Barco Uniforms’ Project Gratitude, receiving donated scrubs from the company to help during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Barco Uniforms announced its pledge to donate 10,000 scrubs to health care professionals each month for the duration of the pandemic.
Columbus Regional Hospital was one of the hospitals that was selected to receive donated scrubs. Barco Uniforms donated 250 sets (500 total garments) to CRH ranging in sizes from XS to 4XL. CRH received the scrubs around mid-April.
“We are incredibly appreciative of such partnerships with Barco and donations like this,” said CRH spokeswoman Kelsey DeClue. “The response of support locally and nationally has been very humbling and as we continue to respond to the virus for quite some time, these scrubs and other similar donations will continue to be vital to keeping our resources strong.”
According to DeClue, the donated scrubs can last a very long time and are very reusable, which makes them especially beneficial for staff and conservation efforts.
Barco Uniforms says that the scrubs are also very durable because they have an in-house quality assessment testing department that adheres to a durability testing standard of 25 washes, but the scrubs can last much longer than that with proper care.
The responses from hospitals on receiving the scrubs has been very high. Barco Uniforms stated that they have donated more than 30,000 scrubs to 90 hospitals spanning 27 states. They have honored the requests from the hospitals on a first-come, first-serve basis. However, due to the overwhelming number of requests, they are no longer able to fulfill new requests.
“We are closely monitoring the current status of the pandemic, and we are prepared to donate more to those who are already on our existing waiting list,” said Barco Uniforms Vice President of Corporate Marketing Peggy Schulz.
With the main surge of COVID-19 cases being much lower than expected, DeClue says the scrubs are being reserved during a potential surge of COVID-19 patients.
Health experts from across the nation have suggested that another surge could happen in the fall.
“Right now we are reserving these scrubs for potential overflow, so yes they will be vital in the event of another surge of patients and would be used in COVID-19 treatment and care sectors of the hospital,” DeClue said.
