AdventHealth Finds Innovative Solution to Provide Face Shields for Team Members During COVID-19

April 13, 2020 — As the number of COVID-19 cases rise around the country, AdventHealth is proactively taking steps to ensure team members have adequate protective equipment to keep them safe while caring for patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. Like other hospitals and healthcare systems across the U.S., AdventHealth is sourcing masks and other protective equipment from all over the world, and found an innovative solution with Agora Edge in St. Petersburg, Florida, to produce 10,000 face shields and medical grade masks for team members. The face shields add an extra layer of protection to the masks team members use during their shifts. Agora Edge is using surgical material readily available in all AdventHealth hospitals to create the masks which have N95 barrier properties.

“We are working aggressively to ensure that our facilities can continue to deliver the high quality care we are nationally recognized for, and this includes a diligent focus on supplies to keep our team members and patients safe,” said Mike Schultz, President and CEO of AdventHealth West Florida Division. “We provide personal protective equipment to all of our team members and will continue to work with our partners, manufacturers, vendors and agencies to ensure the continuity of our supply chain.”

The partnership with Agora Edge is just one way AdventHealth is sourcing additional protective equipment.

“We’re thinking creatively and working with a number of smaller companies like Agora who can hand produce goods with high quality and consistency that meet specifications to protect our team members,” said Bryan Shova, Executive Director of Strategic Design for AdventHealth.

AdventHealth is working also working with additional small manufacturers to produce a total of 90,000 face shields to protect team members across the country.

B-roll and sound can be found .

About AdventHealth West Florida Division

The West Florida Division of AdventHealth has some of the nation’s brightest medical minds making lifesaving breakthroughs with surgical pioneers, scientists and researchers using leading edge technology and innovation to deliver our brand of whole-person care. Our network of care includes AdventHealth Carrollwood, AdventHealth Connerton, AdventHealth Dade City, AdventHealth Lake Placid, AdventHealth North Pinellas, AdventHealth Ocala, AdventHealth Sebring, AdventHealth Tampa, AdventHealth Wauchula, AdventHealth Wesley Chapel and AdventHealth Zephyrhills, as well as five freestanding offsite Emergency Rooms including AdventHealth Brandon ER, AdventHealth Central Pasco ER, AdventHealth Palm Harbor ER, AdventHealth TimberRidge ER, and AdventHealth Westchase ER. We are more than hospitals, as we have a robust system of care including specialty acute care, over 200 primary care and specialty employed physicians, Express Care at Walgreens clinics, urgent care centers, wound care, physical therapy, home care, mobile mammography and more. AdventHealth is a faith-based not-for-profit health care system with a mission of Extending the Healing Ministry of Christ. AdventHealth has hundreds of care sites and nearly 50 hospitals across the United States. For more information about AdventHealth, visit AdventHealth.com, or Facebook.com/AdventHealth, and for West Florida Division, click here.