Medical Equipment Manufacturer Increases Production to Meet Demand Driven by COVID-19 Pandemic

This week, the World Health Organization declared a worldwide pandemic of COVID-19. In the United States alone, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) predicts that patients as well as healthcare workers might need as many as 100- to 400-million surgical masks as well as 7,000 to 11,000 mechanical ventilators in the coming days to help prevent the disease from spreading and to treat them if they become infected.
Steve Heffernen, president of Omnimed, worries that medical equipment manufacturers might have difficulty keeping up with such increased demand. “It changes every day,” he said of the rising need, citing face masks as one example. Not only healthcare workers, but even people who don't work in healthcare are wearing them in huge numbers.
“Everybody wants masks right now,” Heffernen said. “Any place where there are large gatherings, all anybody thinks about is masks.”
Omnimed makes an adjustable face mask holder that can hold different sizes and types of masks that is flying off its shelves. “We literally sold more of these last week than we did all last year,” Heffernen said. “It’s a simple product—it’s never been a big mover, but now there’s a panic.”
He said ...

Source: MDDI - March 13, 2020 Category: Medical Devices Authors: Susan Shepard Tags: Business Source Type: news