Thanks to a contract awarded by the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) on behalf of the U.S Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Battelle is able to provide N95 decontamination at no charge to health care personnel.
We encourage all long term care communities to take advantage of this service to assist with PPE conservation. The presentation outlines the process for utilizing this system (please note Missouri will be using a drop off/pick up process indicated below rather than shipping outlined in the presentation).
The first step is to enroll with Battelle. Each healthcare and first responder provider must do so through www.battelle.org/N95.
Following that enrollment process, packaging your contaminated masks as per Battelle’s instructions and transporting those N95s to the drop-off/pick-up sites is the next step. Healthcare providers and first responders are allowed to transport their own N95s to the collection points without a special license or contractor. A map of the established drop-off/pick-up sites is attached. These sites will be staffed seven days per week from 7:00 a.m.-7:00 p.m. daily beginning Sunday, April 26 at 7:00 a.m.
The Battelle CCDS did arrive in Missouri last week, set-up and preliminary testing is underway. Battelle anticipates beginning to process masks by Tuesday, April 28.
Information about the Battelle CCDS system and process is located at https://health.mo.gov/living/healthcondiseases/communicable/novel-coronavirus/professionals.php as well as the Battelle website denoted above.
Updated Information (4-30-2020)
The Jefferson City Armory site is able to receive contaminated masks, in addition to the other 13 Armory sites around the state. In Jefferson City, there are signs directing to the appropriate entrance at the Armory – it is the back door. Their hours will also be seven days per week from 7:00 a.m.-7:00 p.m. for both drop-off and pick-up of masks.
As we had originally thought this site would not be able to serve as a drop-off/pick-up site for masks and we would have divert Jefferson City-based providers to another Armory, this is welcome news!