PHILADELPHIA, March 10, 2021 – The American College of Physicians (ACP) is providing financial support to Project N95 in an effort to ensure personal protective equipment (PPE) is available for frontline ACP members and internists and other frontline healthcare workers. ACP’s financial contribution will help Project N95 to secure appropriate inventory levels for PPE, particularly for hard-to-obtain items such as nitrile gloves.
ACP has collaborated with Project N95 since June 2020 to provide PPE for internal medicine physicians, filling an urgent need for frontline ACP member physicians during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since the beginning of the pandemic ACP has been vigorously advocating for the need for adequate PPE, calling on suppliers and the federal government to ensure the availability of essential PPE to protect frontline physicians. Many individual physicians, especially those outside of hospitals, had been closed out of ordering PPE through distributors at reasonable prices and quantities.
Despite recent reports that U.S. suppliers of N95 respirators have inventory available, the distribution system in the U.S. is still not working effectively to allow individual physicians to order high-quality PPE to meet their needs.
“Having adequate supplies of reliable PPE remains a challenge for our members during this pandemic and is critical in protecting essential health care professionals while caring for patients,” said Jacqueline W. Fincher, MD, MACP, President, ACP. “Supporting Project N95 ensures that those supplies are available.”
A successful collaboration between ACP and Project N95 has allowed ACP members to order in smaller quantities, down to a single 20-count box of N95 respirators and 15-count bag of disposable isolation gowns and resulted in thousands of orders placed representing more than 55,000 frontline workers protected across all 50 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia.
Project N95 vets and verifies all products and suppliers and uses manufacturers and suppliers who meet quality, cost and delivery expectations. All of the N95 respirators that are sold carry (at minimum) National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) certification.
“Our collaboration with ACP has accelerated our ability to provide access to critical PPE for member physicians,” said Anne Miller, Executive Director, Project N95. “This support will allow us to secure additional inventory and ensure that ACP members continue to have access to in-demand items.”
The American College of Physicians is the largest medical specialty organization in the United States with members in more than 145 countries worldwide. ACP membership includes 163,000 internal medicine physicians (internists), related subspecialists, and medical students. Internal medicine physicians are specialists who apply scientific knowledge and clinical expertise to the diagnosis, treatment, and compassionate care of adults across the spectrum from health to complex illness. Follow ACP on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Project N95 protects healthcare and essential workers, as well as underserved and vulnerable communities, by providing equitable access as quickly as possible to vetted personal protective equipment (PPE). As a leading rapid response nonprofit organization 501(c)(3) created in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Project N95 has become the National Clearinghouse for critical PPE. Visit www.projectn95.org to learn more or to volunteer.
ACP Media Contact: Andrew Hachadorian, (215) 351-2514, AHachadorian@acponline.org
Project N95 Contact : Kimberly Paulk, (980) 297-3558, kimberly.paulk@projectn95.org