Personal Protective Equipment

With the current worldwide shortages on personal protective equipment (PPE) such as masks and face shields, hospitals everywhere are looking for new ways to keep patients and health care professionals safe. At CoxHealth, we teamed up with Jordan Valley Innovation Center to create a special shield that can be work over masks. This will protect the masks from exposure so they can be used longer. 

The frame for these shields is a material most hospitals already have. Other pieces required partnering with local university labs for materials. Each component of the shield can be taken apart and replaced separately, making them efficient and easy to supply. In addition, each component can be cleaned thoroughly according the hospital's stringent guidelines and used again. We have included the specifications for this device assembly so all providers have access to this information and can adapt it to their individual needs. We hope this helps make us all better equipped to manage this shortage of vital resources and keep our patients and staff safe.

Disclaimer: This is our quick attempt at a solution for this challenge. We will continue to tweak and improve our design, and will update this page as we learn more. Please adjust for your own needs. If you find a better solution, please email us at innovation@coxhealth.com to let us know. This information is intended for health care systems and provider groups to use as needed. Providers will need to partner with local sources for resources and additional assistance regarding 3D printing, laser cutting, supplies, etc.

Details

The shields are built using the following pieces: 

• A typical non-assembled safety frame (if you don't have this piece on hand, you can print using the frame .stl file)
• A nosepiece created using 3D printing
• A clear face shield using laser cutting technology
• Small zip tie

Instructions

• Select the appropriate nosepiece file to download based on your 3D printer
• Tweak printing parameters as needed
• Refer to the .dwg file for the face shield drawing
• Refer to the .dxf file for the face shield specifications
• Secure the nosepiece to the frame with a small zip tie as an added layer of caution since many frames have variable sizes