Situation Report | November 23, 2020
The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene (NYC DOHMH) reminds providers to use its Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) Service Center, run by Medline, to access PPE on an emergency basis when providers have exhausted all other supply options.
Few Certified Home Health Agencies (CHHAs) and Licensed Home Care Services Agencies have so far ordered PPE through this process, and HCA seeks feedback from members who have or have not utilized the center by contacting HCA’s Vice President for Program Policy and Services Andrew Koski. Below are some further information and updates.
Account Access
Providers are encouraged to test out their log-in to the NYC PPE Service Center now and also familiarize themselves with Medline.com in preparation for when they need to place their first order. As a reminder, in most cases, your Service Center username is the e-mail you provided to NYC DOHMH specifically for the PPE Service Center and your temporary password is welcome123. If that doesn’t work, try to manually reset your password by clicking “Forgot Username or Password.”
Once in your account, click on your shopping list and ensure that it pre-populates.
For general questions about the PPE Service Center, please e-mail NYCDOHMH. For questions about navigating the Medline site, placing an order, or issues with your shopping cart, please contact the Medline NYC Customer Service Desk at 866-478-1490, ext. 2222. Note: If you have an existing Medline account, your PPE Service Center username is the first part of your email followed by “_3PL” (for example, if your e-mail is jsmith@email.com, then your username would be “jsmith_3PL”).
Nitrile Glove Shortage
There is currently a shortage of nitrile gloves in the global supply chain. All providers are encouraged to preserve the use of nitrile gloves for times when latex or vinyl gloves cannot be used (i.e., latex allergies or the expectation of significant exposure to blood/body fluids).
If latex gloves are used, non-powdered latex gloves are less likely to induce allergies and there should be a clearly visible allergy warning for staff. Vinyl gloves are another alternative, but these should be reserved for routine exams and other activities where there is not significant exposure to blood/body fluids. Both latex and vinyl gloves are readily available on the market and are not available in the PPE Service Center.
As of November 16, all orders of nitrile gloves at the PPE Service Center are being reduced if the requested amount is over 10 cases.
A list of other suppliers is here.
Order Modifications
If you have a question about a submitted order (e.g., quantities were modified from the original amount ordered), go to “My Account” and “Search Orders” to search for and select the order in question. If a modification was made to your order, you will see a note on the top right of the order screen.