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“Working in the Emergency Department in the epicenter of a deadly pandemic can feel isolating, like no one except your own team understands your fears. Our calling is to care for the patients, but who can help take care of us when the hospital has shortages of critical supplies? So when I got a call from IMR to ask if they could help fill any gaps in PPE and supplies, it felt like we were seen and supported. During the height of the crisis, when nurses were bringing bleach from home, IMR stepped in to help us with deliveries of sanitizing wipes. It seemed so simple, but it was truly life saving. Throughout the crisis, IMR has been in contact with us on a weekly basis to make sure we are protected. Opening each box from IMR brings tears to my eyes with gratitude. Thank you IMR for stepping in to help keep our patients and our healthcare team safe.”
— Tiffany, RN, Brooklyn,NY
“I want to say thank you very much we appreciate all the PPE you supplied to us during our COVID-19 surge and continue to provide. Dr. Lue asks me what we need and your organization has provided it time and time again and still provides it for over four month’s now. So all my staff want to say thank you your will organization will always be special to us.”
— D. G., Queens, NY
“IMR has been a blessing! Just as fear and uncertainty gripped us we were placed in contact with IMR. Their response and delivery of needed ppe was reassuring. There were times when we weren’t sure of what we needed and suggestions were made. But the thing that stands out the most was how they checked weekly in to see if we had enough supplies. We are so grateful and appreciate of their selfless efforts. ”
— Clover Hutchinson OTR/L, Chief Occupational Therapist, Brookdale Hospital &Medical Center
“With all the best intentions and planning we were all deeply affected by COVID-19. The generous donation of PPE we received from IMR’s Emergency Supply Cabinet was overwhelming and deeply appreciated. It came at a time of much anxiety among staff and homeless patients.

During March 1 to May 31, the Community Medicine Program at NYU Langone was able to provide ongoing face to face health assessment, psychiatric evaluations and ongoing primary care for 2,453 homeless patients across 9 outpatient clients in Brooklyn and Manhattan. With a staff of 50 workers your gift offered a sense of reassurance and confidence in the work we do.

In addition to the above, we were able to conduct 141 Covid tests during May 1- June 12, 2020 and provide timely results to our patients.

Thank you for your contributions this is greatly appreciated. ”
— Julius Powell, MPH, Manager

Since the start of the pandemic in March, IMR has proven to be a constant, reliable source of emergency PPE for many healthcare workers in NYC

 

As of September — 6 months into the pandemic — we have continued to keep in touch with our partners and have made weekly PPE deliveries when they face critical gaps in supplies. We have established a supply cabinet and fulfill emergency requests for N95 masks, surgical masks, face shields, gowns, gloves, and cleaning agents — to help supply as many health care workers as we possibly can.

We are prepared to continue making deliveries as long as the pandemic and the need persists. If you are committed to keeping healthcare workers safe, please consider joining us in our effort by donating to our Emergency PPE Fund!

 
“I would like to take a moment to express my gratitude and heartfelt thank you for all your PPE donations. Supplies you donated - coveralls, masks, faceshields, head covers and shoe covers were used by several departments including the ER, OR, in patient units nursing staff, surgical residents, anesthesia and attendings from various specialties. The Clorox wipes are consistently used to keep our working spaces sanitized and clean.

Several studies have shown that with appropriate PPE, health care workers are safer, healthier and protected in their fight against covid. This has truly been the case with many of us, after we were equipped with the much needed PPE. ”
— A grateful frontline healthcare worker, NYC

UPDATES

November 8, 2020

As Covid-19 cases rise to over 9 million and we pass the tragic mark of over 228,000 people who’ve died in the US, we have continued to provide weekly personal protective equipment (PPE) deliveries to our NYC healthcare partners for the last 7 months. All current data shows that COVID cases and hospitalizations are increasing here in NYC. This is supported by what we’ve heard from the doctors and nurses we check in with weekly. We are fully committed to supporting our partners through this next wave of cases. From our ER partners in Queens, “We are definitely seeing more cases coming into our hospital.”

The requests have ranged from respiratory mask and isolation gowns, along with face shields. We expect the needs to change over the next few months. Each partner site has unique PPE needs and we hope to be able to keep our emergency supply cabinet stocked to meet this need. 

Thanks to everyone who has supported our work. We couldn’t have done it without you! We’d like to continue to be able to support our healthcare workers. Please consider a donation.

In other news, we’re so proud of one of our partners, Nurse Amy Sullivan from Wykoff ER who was named one of Time magazine’s 100 most info people for 2020. Congratulations Amy and a big cheer to all healthcare workers around the globe doing the most amazing work of caring for all who’ve been suffering through this pandemic. 

July 10, 2020

Just a quick update to let you know, we are still sending out PPE to our partners! We've been at this for 14 weeks and will try to keep delivering to our 20 partners through 2020.

We received a huge donation of supplies from Americares. 2 pallets of Clorox wipes, shoe covers, hand sanitizer. We have more on the way from Direct Relief this week. Every donated item helps us to stretch our budget further.

We were happy to be able to help supply many of our partners as they opened up for outpatient care last month. And we have been super grateful to have so many cleaning supplies on hand for what seems to have been a rationing of cleaning supplies at quite a few of our partner hospitals.

There are still significant gaps in PPE in many places with N95 masks and cleaning products most often in short supply. And we are starting to hear about increasing PPE shortages nationwide.

Thanks again for joining our effort to help get NYC medical workers what they need to stay protected while they are taking care of all of us!

May 23, 2020

To be honest, we had hoped that by this point in the crisis, there would be less critical need for PPE and essential supplies. From what we are hearing from our partners this week, there seems to be a growing need for basic cleaning supplies and for surgical masks.

Already this week and also the week before, shoe covers and bouffant hats have been in short supply. Two and three weeks ago it was gowns. A doctor at one of out partner sites described that she feels the PPE crisis has a yoyo effect : you have no gowns and then you have a lot of gowns but now have no hats or shoe covers. And you never know what will be missing next.

We try to stay ahead of it, or at least on top of it, by maintaining weekly communication with our partners. If we hear more than one or two partners mention that they are running low on something, we start to ask other partners.

This week we got very lucky. As we started to hear more and more requests for cleaning supplies, continued requests for shoe covers, serendipitously we had an organization step up and offer to donate a pallet of cleaning wipes and shoe covers. They arrive tomorrow just as our current supply of shoe covers and sani-wipes runs out.

Of course we are not so lucky most weeks. And that's why your GFM donations are invaluable. We are committed to running this Emergency Supply Cabinet project for as long as it is needed. Right now we are re-thinking our original "10-12 weeks at the most" and have started planning how to stay stocked through 2020.

We're going to need your help with this. Please help spread the word!

May 1, 2020

Feeling great this week! We finished up our third, full week of deliveries to our many partners.

Thanks to all of your donations, we are going to step up and guarantee some of our partners a respirator mask per day per HCW for the next 4-6 weeks. It's expensive, but these HCW deserve it and more! (We are doing this for partners where they are still only getting one mask per week.)

We got requests and accepted 4 new, additional partners as well. Our new partners are a mix of ERs, Labor and Delivery, and rehab departments at hospitals.

Meanwhile there is good news too. 2 of our partners needed absolutely nothing from us this week.

We plan to continue with this effort for as long as we are finding critical gaps in PPE and we have the funds .

Thank you all for making this possible!!

april 22, 2020

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This update is a difficult one, but important to share with you all.

I want to take a moment to honor the memory of Dr. Ronald Verrier, an esteemed trauma surgeon in the Bronx, passed away from Covid-19 last week. He was the beloved uncle of Dr. Chris Pardo, our team member. He was 59 years old.

Here is a nice tribute to him from Katie Couric.

Sadly, this loss highlights why we're working to get PPE to healthcare workers. They need to stay safe and healthy, for their own, their patient's and their families well being. Keeping him, Chris's family and all healthcare workers in our thoughts as we get through this together

April 17, 2020

As soon as PPE comes in, PPE goes out. Thank you all for joining this effort!

Every day we are getting requests from new hospitals who are desperately seeking supplies. Masks and face shields are always on the list but we are seeing so many places in desperate need of gowns. (One place yesterday told us that some of the staff was in plastic... )

We are now also getting emergency requests for cleaning supplies. One group of nurses at a community hospital in Brooklyn has been bringing in their own vinegar based cleaners. We will try our best to drop to get them something, anything, as soon as we can.

Please spread the word to help keep the momentum going. Let's do everything we can to help our health care workers.

APRIL 11, 2020

Exciting news! A pallet of PPE was delivered in Brooklyn yesterday.

Even more exciting news! We were able to divide it up and make deliveries of specific PPE where it is needed right now.

This is thanks to all of you!

To think many of us had no idea what PPE was 6 weeks ago and to think we only started this fundraiser 6 days ago. We are in awe of what we have been able to accomplish together!

Sadly, there is a lot more that needs to get done. The word is spreading about about our project and we have started getting requests from other hospitals. Our current partners will need more next week and the week after as well.

Let's keep this going and get our health care workers the protection they need to stay safe while they take care of all of us!

April 8, 2020

We hit our initial target goal of 15K and now will add a stretch goal of 25K! Let's keep this going and get our health care workers the protection they need.

Based on the early success of this campaign, IMR was able to order over 1000 lbs of PPE supplies - gowns, gloves and masks - which will be arriving on Friday 4/10 here in NYC!

Other exciting news coming soon too! Look for another update in the next day or two.