As a partner that directly impacts the ability of healthcare facilities to function, Daniels Health has prioritized continued and flexible operations to maintain stability of service and help meet the curve of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Maintaining standard operations has required additional investment in transport, treatment, staffing, and pandemic protocols, however over and above this Daniels has been actively involved in supporting the setup and servicing of temporary field hospitals and testing stations.

Healthcare workers need to be supported now more than ever and we want to illuminate how our team has worked with a few partners to ensure they are prepared to handle any medical waste generated at these temporary sites.

Use the menu below to jump to specific stories:

• Tammi Hawkins, Advent Health COVID-19 Drive Thru Testing Site, Southeast
• Adrian Balyeat, Spectrum Health Temporary Hospital, Midwest
• David Castillo, Wisconsin State Fair Temporary Hospital, Midwest

Tammi Hawkins – Advent Health Drive-Thru Testing Site

Within two days of receiving a request from her partner at AdventHealth Centra Care sites, Tammi and her team were able to deliver an order of corrugated cardboard biomedical waste boxes and liners to AdventHealth’s first COVID-19 Drive-Thru Testing site at the Daytona Speedway – making it ready for opening day.

Tammi credits this swift setup in part to her teammate, Florida Business Unit Manager, Charles Rivera’s involvement from the onset and every day since.

While Daniels Health typically tries to connect our customers with reusable biohaz tubs, the preferred and more sustainable solution, our team quickly realized that these were not the best fit for the drive-thru locations – they had little space for storage and no predictions of how much waste they would generate. She worked with them to find the waste management containers to best meet their needs – something that each Daniels’ Business Manager strives to do. The cardboard boxes were easily stored on-site and enabled quick setup during opening hours.

Since April 9^th, Tammi and team have set up 5 active testing sites that mirror the first in Daytona – with more potentially on the way. You can find more information about their current locations here.

But the support and partnership doesn’t stop with the AdventHealth Centra Care drive-thru testing initiative. Daniels has also been focused on supporting Advent Health Acute facilities – all of which have been outfitted with our COVID-19 Package that contains valuable resources including COVID-19 waste handling processes and disposal methods. This package allows our customers to disseminate information amongst their staff to ensure everyone is compliantly disposing of waste generated during COVID-19 treatment.

Another teammate to highlight in the support of AdventHealth is Griffin DuBrule, Field Service Manager, who has done an outstanding job supporting his team of Field Service Representatives (FSRs). Our FSRs operate within 21 of our AdventHealth Florida locations and have had zero service breaks throughout this entire ordeal; which means continued operations, minimized patient interruptions, and no break from the clinical norm – the goal of the FST role.

As AdventHealth prepares for to battle COVID-19, the Daniels’ team will continue support them to be prepared for what may come next.

Adrian Balyeat – Spectrum Health Temporary Hospital

Spectrum Health, the jewel of Michigan healthcare, needed to be equipped to handle any high levels of COVID-19 cases. Adrian Balyeat worked with them as a partner to ensure that Daniels would be able to support them with the healthcare waste management of any temporary hospitals built.

Thankfully, as of April 22^nd, COVID-19 cases in western Michigan are trending downward – stalling the need for a temporary hospital. However, if circumstances change, Daniels Health is prepared to provide clinical waste services to a 700+ bed facility.

Again, our goal is to always be prepared to support the ever-growing and changing needs of the healthcare industry. While this time has been challenging for us all – we have risen to meet the mark and are proud of that. Providing excellent service is how we can do our part to lighten the burden on clinicians.

David Castillo – Wisconsin State Fair Temporary Hospital

Like everything with COVID-19, the need developed quickly for a temporary hospital to be setup at the site of the Wisconsin State fair. Thanks to David’s partnership with Advanced Disposal who manages the municipal solid waste for the fair, Daniels was contacted as a potential partner to handle the medical waste.

After 3 days of close communications with COO of the Wisconsin State Fair, Chris Kowieski, David Castillo arrived to the fair and what he described as a “most interesting” scene.

“I arrived to see preparations to begin transitioning the convention center into patient rooms. Including, a full command center with many different agencies including the US Army Corps.”

David and team met with key personnel, at a safe social distance, to discuss how Daniels Health could support the field hospital with sharps and regulated medical waste (biohaz) containers and disposal service. Due to David’s extensive history with Aurora Health Care he was able to provide additional resources that helped the Wisconsin response team at this location as well. Daniels was chosen as the preferred partner to provide clinical waste management for the location.

David and the team at Daniels’ Sturtevant Wisconsin Business Unit then worked to ensure the Wisconsin State Fair site was equipped for opening on April 20^th.  Overall the Daniels team:

Installed 675 corrugated cardboard disposable biohaz boxes

(6) 96 gallon RMW (biohaz) containers

And (20) of our S14 reusable sharps containers to be utilized in various areas.

This comprehensive solution speaks to the dedication of the Daniels’ team to provide our partners with the appropriate healthcare waste management containers and volumes to meet their unique needs.

While we are tremendously proud of everyone in our organization for their eagerness to step up and be flexible during this time – we always want to maintain focus on who we do this for: patient and staff safety in a clinical setting. Daniels Health began with the mission of #MakingHealthcareSafer – and we are doing just that by rising to meet the rapidly changing needs of clinics, hospitals, and communities during this time.

With passion, and the right solutions, we can make a difference.