St. Charles explains how large amount of PPE ended up disposed of at Knott Landfill

Says much of it was 'substandard,' offered to others -- but no takers

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- A viewer contacted NewsChannel 21 Thursday and shared photos of a large amount of St. Charles' personal protective equipment, from masks to gowns and gloves, that had just been disposed of at Bend's Knott Landfill.

He said the landfill attendants told him the items were from St. Charles, who said they had "run out of warehouse space."

The viewer was puzzled as to why "the hospital couldn't find a charity that needed this, or any other way to make use of it? … I found it shocking."

We contacted the health system, which provided this response as to how the large volume of material ended up there:

"In early 2020, St. Charles and other hospital systems around the country were faced with a critical shortage of personal protective equipment. At the time, we ordered whatever PPE was available, including certain substandard types of PPE we would not have previously considered using.

"As the supply chain improved, most of the PPE we ordered during the early months of the pandemic was moved to storage provided by a third-party vendor and held onto for emergency use only. This PPE included many thousands of N95 masks with exhalation valves, which cannot be reliably used to prevent the spread of COVID-19 per CDC guidelines, as well as other items such as gloves and gowns, which would eventually expire.

"In spring 2021, we went through this inventory of PPE and determined it was not useable by our health system. It was offered to other health care organizations, schools, counties, construction firms and religious groups, which in turn distributed some of it to homeless individuals. We also consulted with a third-party vendor who determined the PPE could not be resold.

"Today, a third party responsible for liquidating this PPE by donation or sales made the decision to discard the PPE after many efforts to place it, including shipping it to developing countries.

"While we regret this PPE ultimately couldn’t be rehomed, we also feel a strong responsibility to provide our caregivers with the safest and highest quality PPE, both for their protection and our patients," the hospital system concluded.