First Aid Supplies Renewal

[Joshua James Macario]

Hey all, as a CERT Member and Trained Red Cross Volunteer in disaster response and first aid, i took a look at the existing first aid cabinet by the bathroom. I had to discard several items are they were expired, and a lot of other items are expiring this year.

The simplest and most efficient thing to do at this point would be to replace the whole box with a new one. I recommend the following box for the lab:
https://firstaidonly.com/products/large-metal-smart-compliance-first-aid-cabinet-ansi-a-compliant-without-medications

I know that there has been discussion before, dating as far back as 2024, but the supplies in here date back to 2021. As the supplies are expiring and we need to be prepared, always, it is important that we renew this kit in a timely fashion.

The question was raised of how to renew the individual supplies. By going with a major vendor Like First aid only, they provide SKUs to be able to easily replace specific supplies without buying a whole new kit, especially when buying complete cabinets.

Please note, the reason that I chose the version without medication is that unless you're a certified professional or that you are taking it for yourself, you cannot administer medication to someone else. Of course, in a real emergency, the Good Samaritan act would protect you in most cases, but the general rule is that if you're not trained to dispense a product or service, you should abstain from it.

Thanks Moheeb and Eric for the support  

[Katy Osterwald]

As a fellow trained first aid responder for my work office, thank you for doing this. I don't think I've noticed if the lab has an AED with the first aid supplies - if we don't have one we should get one.

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[Antonio Contrisciani]

Joshua, 

First and foremost thank you for your attention to this matter and your proactive work. We performed a top down refresh of this kit in august of 2025. Can I ask what items specifically were discarded? 

In the past we had a member under the auspices of do-ocracy basically throw out the entire contents of the first aid kit, which left us with NO first aid supplies until the supplies could be replaced. As we have a process for expenditures this left us in a really bad position and I am concerned that this has re-occurred. If you discarded expired medication, thats fine no one should be taking expired meds, but if it was expired bandages, tape, gauze, etc I feel like having the items on hand, even expired, is preferable until they can be replaced. We also need to document extensively items that are being thrown away ANYWHERE in the lab so that they can be replaced. 

Second, when this previously occurred we looked at several different variations of prepared kits, replacement cabinets etc. The general consensus was that a new cabinet with items was not a cost effective use of lab funds, it was better to fit the contents of the cabinet to our own needs and purchase the items to fill a spreadsheet that we created as a collaborative effort.

As for medication, the first aid kit is designed PRIMARILY for users to provide first aid to themselves, not for volunteers to provide first aid to each other, hence why we wanted to include a number of medications for users that wanted them. Discarding those medications is a bad idea.

Katy, we considered an AED when we did this last refresh however the decision was made that without sufficient numbers of hosts/volunteers trained in its use, the quick response time of medical personnel to downtown mesa, and the cost of the AED units, it was simply not a wise use of lab funds. We cannot be "all things," we need to focus on the most likely accidents / need for aid in the lab which includes minor injuries and heavy bleed/trauma response. We briefly discussed things like having narcan on hand as well due to the high transient population in the area and the rising use of fentanyl but again the decision was made that we needed to keep the first aid kit purpose driven and topical to the space itself..

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[Joshua James Macario]

Thank you, Kathy for your support and for taking on that mantle at your work office.

Antonio, Thank you for your thorough feedback.

Don't worry, I only discarded expired consumables. The instant hand sanitizer packs expired earlier this year, the 2-3 iodine antiseptic towelettes expired in September last year, and the "Bactrine" spray expired in 2023. Even though those are technically all antiseptics, I don't think we can rely on their "cleaning" capabilities to withstand the test of time.

I also noticed that the stop the bleed pack is a comprehensive torniquet kit, which can be good, but must be used properly.

I do understand the idea of not wanting a generic $319 kit for cases that might not be relevant to the lab. If I was to pick and chose, i would prioritize a lot of gauze dressing, some rolls of bandages, antiseptics/antibiotics, BZK wipes, eye care and wound wash. Now for the medications, these are the ones that must be stored properly and renewed more often. As much as I understand the idea that they are meant for people to administer it to themselves, I'm not sure I agree that having them is a good idea.

For the AED, every second counts. In a cardiac arrest situation, you can't only rely on the fire department arriving within less than their expected 4 minutes. there could traffic, there could be other calls, and the longer a brain is left without oxygen, the more damage it takes, lowering the change of a full, or any, recovery. AEDs are meant to be able to be used by anyone, as long as they use the instructions right. In case of emergency, a wrong action is preferred over no action. The reason I'm saying all of that is to justify the fact that AEDs are important and do help save lives.

I'm happy to keep on discussing this whether here or offline.

As a summary:

1. I'm ok with only getting the supplies we need, as long as we think through it right

2. AEDs, even without training help save lives as we cannot always rely on the fire department arriving within 4 minutes.

Also, especially considering the existing free resources (e.g. CERT Basic training, maybe Red Cross or AHA if they have a non-profit version), all members should be at least trained in first aid and CPR, and each guest should be shown the first aid kit location and contents on their first visit. It is also my opinion that a yearly refresher of knowing where the kit is and what it contains and what it is for would be a strong practice. I'm happy to take on that duty now that I've moved to Mesa and become a member, safety and security are very important to me and I'd love to spearhead that project.

Additionally, to reply to your other comment, Antonio, I haven't seen, but it would be a good idea to have an item use and disposal log or form for when important items are used and/or disposed of so that they can be replenished. I know it's extra paperwork, but that's how you justify budgets for consumables.

Sorry for such a long message, but I hope I answered all of your concerns.

Happy to discuss more.

JJ

[Cprossu]

Reposting what I said in slack here for the record. 

I have no idea how any supplies dating to 2021 made it into the cabinet unless someone put it in/added to it after we did the kit last year in  August.

Here's the link to the post last August.

https://groups.google.com/g/heatsynclabs/c/dYW2QXyKhno/m/ifOK4OlgBAAJ

We should put a note in that the blood control kit, specifically the tourniquet should be used only when on the phone and under instruction with emergency operators (eg 9-1-1) or those with official training.

The supplies in our cabinet were chosen to comply with OSHA, even if we are not required to with a few things specialized to the lab and worst case scenarios.
https://www.osha.gov/laws-regs/regulations/standardnumber/1910/1910.266AppA

It's great we have someone certified to deal with this. We do not have the budget to replace the entire kit with container each and every year, so refill kits give us the flexibility to do better. Burn creams and ointments gotten from grainger seem to have a shelf life no longer than 6 months prior to their expiration, so if you have a source for those other than grainger, it would be appreciated.

We have tried to source an AED from a few different non-profits (which provide AED, training, and maintenance of the device) without success, but we would love to have one for the lab. The budget for a brand new AED + service contract last time we looked into it exceeded anything that was reasonable and blew our yearly budget out of the water. It might have gotten cheaper though, but it's not anything we've looked into recently. We'd love to have one and it's been on our list of wants since we've had a space.  

[Tim M]

That was the last time the former facilities manager restocked the first aid kit. That's why they expired in 2021. It's also the downside from buying from Amazon.

Regards,

Tim Moffat

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From: heatsy...@googlegroups.com <heatsy...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Cprossu <cpr...@gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, March 13, 2026 8:53:26 AM
To: HeatSync Labs <heatsy...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [HSL] First Aid Supplies Renewal

 

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[Cprossu]

Thanks for the clarification. Also yikes.

[Joshua James Macario]

just to clarify, the 2021 resources were sourced at that time, the oldest expiration date was 2023

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[Katy Osterwald]

I did some looking into AEDs this afternoon - there is actually a foundation that places AEDs in southern Arizona at non-profits specifically, we should definitely apply for this, the application seems pretty straightforward: https://www.gootterjensen.org/aed-donation-program#aed-applications

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