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2020 MEDICAL YEAR
IN REVIEW

BCMS Service to Our Members

and Community in Need!

By Melody Newsom, BCMS Chief Operating Officer

When the novel coronavirus pandemic the physicians, their staff and patients at risk of gallons of isopropyl alcohol for use as hand
was declared in March of 2020, no one had of, and the fear of, contracting COVID-19. sanitizer. Nail salons donated gloves and got
an idea of just how this would affect our com- In mid-March, a passionate and concerned the Vietnamese community organized to
munity or physician members of the Bexar medical student reached out to BCMS make face shields and cloth masks. You get the
County Medical Society! Early on, the lack alarmed about the lack of appropriate PPE picture! Many other individuals, companies
of a multitude of items needed to respond to for the medial professionals where she was and non-profits came together to help the
the pandemic in our community was great. working. She and a group of dedicated med- physicians and our medical community.
From the lack of specimen collection kits and ical student volunteers, later forming the When the supply chains began to open,
supplies (swabs, viral transport medium Strategic Alliance for Emergency Response practices that were not already established
(VTM), etc.) to personal protective equip- (SAFER Texas), started soliciting donations PPE customers of reputable PPE suppliers
ment (PPE), the needs of the medical com- of PPE and other supplies. Donations were could not obtain the needed PPE. Even
munity became rapidly apparent. solicited from multiple sources in the com- when other potential suppliers were identi-
When responses to the emergency needs munity that had closed their businesses due fied and contacted, supplies were still very
of our community were identified, BCMS to the community lockdown and to their limited and prices were inflated.
reached out to our physician members to being categorized as “non-essential”. The con- Since that time, the BCMS/SAFER Texas
help. The physicians stepped up and donated struction industry, distilleries, nail salons, the PPE Project has grown into a full-fledged PPE
countless test collection kits and supplies so Vietnamese community and physician prac- distribution system to serve the medical com-
our city could maintain testing capacity of tices that were more “elective-procedure- munity. BCMS’ longstanding relationship
our first responders and medical staffs as the based” were solicited to donate PPE. These with the Southwest Texas Regional Advisory
virus was entering our community. donations got the PPE project going and al- Council (STRAC) has allowed the Society to
The world-wide demand for PPE resulted lowed BCMS and SAFER Texas to provide be the conduit of PPE provided from the
in major shortages of PPE. Early on, govern- the much-needed PPE to the medical profes- Texas Division of Emergency Management
mental agencies and national stockpile sup- sionals deemed “essential” so they could con- (TDEM) to the physicians, not only in Bexar
plies of PPE were mostly earmarked for tinue to serve their patients. County, but in south Texas. Because of this
in-patient settings such as hospitals and nurs- The response was amazing! Construction collaboration, we have been able to help many
ing facilities. As a result, primary care and companies donated non-medical grade N95s, hundreds of physicians to be able to continue
out-patient clinics were left with few to no shoe coverings and overalls. Distilleries, espe- to see patients while keeping their staff, pa-
avenues to obtain PPE. The lack of PPE put cially Garrison Brothers, donated hundreds tients and themselves safe.

30 SAN ANTONIO MEDICINE • December 2020