Nuvance Health has created three Convalescent Plasma Donation Centers that will enable people who have recovered from COVID-19 to provide plasma to treat critically ill patients hospitalized with the disease.
The first donation center opened on April 27 at Nuvance”™s Vassar Brothers Medical Center in Poughkeepsie, with the additional centers scheduled to open at Norwalk Hospital on April 29 and Danbury Hospital on May 1. Nuvance Health has been procuring plasma for COVID-19 patients from the New York Blood Center and the American Red Cross. Plasma that is not used to immediately treat Nuvance patients will be stored for future usage.
In an interview in the new edition of the Westchester and Fairfield County Business Journals, Nuvance President and CEO Dr. John Murphy noted his organization is constantly monitoring the intensive care units and emergency departments to determine where needs for equipment and assistance are greatest.
“We ask them at least twice a day if they have what they need,” Murphy said. “Then each morning we look at the facts, our resources and the limits that people might have and how we might meet them. What could happen over the next 24 hours that would harm our way of responding ”” and how can we develop workarounds for them? Wherever possible, a lot of decisions are made on the frontlines. We want to present authority directly to the people with the most expertise, not only in terms of our doctors and nurses but also our management team.”
