A medical supply company, which provides much-needed personal protection equipment, is finding new ways to meet hospital needs during the novel coronavirus crisis.
Medline Industries, based in Illinois, has North Carolina distribution centers in Lincolnton, with 300 workers, and Concord with 75 employees.
“We’re covering all of North Carolina and can get anywhere within 24 hours,” said Jesse Greenberg, a company spokesman.
As the largest privately-held U.S. manufacturer and distributor of medical products, from PPE to advanced electronic equipment for hospital systems, the company finds itself on the “forefront of the crisis,” Greenberg said.
“We are managing some complex challenges in the supply chain in response to our customers’ needs to respond to” COVID-19, the disease caused by the new virus, Greenberg said. For example, the company found other sources and ways to speed up the delivery of medical supplies amid nationwide shortages.
Medline is the prime vendor for about 40% of U.S. hospital systems, Greenberg said.
It has 22 manufacturing facilities and more than 50 distribution centers that can deliver anywhere in the country within 20 minutes, Greenberg said. He didn’t say which hospitals in the Charlotte area Medline work with.
The company’s distribution centers, including Lincolnton and Concord, have been running 24/7 shifts with up to 65 trucks to meet the demand that’s been up 300% in the Carolinas and east Tennessee since March, Greenberg said.
MEETING PPE NEEDS
Medline is putting a focus on PPE needs.
“We’re responding in different ways to get more PPE to the market,” Greenberg said. He said the company has enough supply for current customers, but “if new network hospital wants to come in, we’re not able to accommodate that right now. “
The supply of PPEs come from partners in Asia and China. Gloves come from Malaysia. “We’re working with manufacturers to increase output,” Greenberg said.
This month alone, he said, the company will distribute 1.4 billion gloves across the country. And in the next six weeks, Medline will distribute 70 million face masks throughout the country, Greenberg said.
Comparing the first three months of last year to this year, 15 million more face masks have been distributed.
RETOOLING
Medline’s 400,000-square-foot Lincolnton facility opened five years ago.
Joe Egbert, senior director of operations at the site, said the main business is supplying to hospitals.
One way the company has worked to meet the demands is by flying in shipments of PPE from China, which shortens the time it would typically take to travel by up to four weeks instead of on cargo vessels.
The company also worked with other contracted manufacturers to retool and supply PPEs, for example, increasing facemask supplies from Latin America.
Egbert said the hours have been long, similar to hurricanes and other crisis situations.
“It makes you really proud of each and every team member reporting to work every day,” he said.
Greenberg said last month, Medline also began retooling its manufacturing facilities in other parts of the country, such as making N95 face masks at a site that normally produces knee and heart surgery equipment. Its liquid facilities that normally make preoperative gels and shampoo are now producing 150,00 bottles a week of hand sanitizer.
GROWING HEALTHCARE NEEDS
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, Medline has been growing.
In September, the company and North Carolina officials announced a $65 million 1.2 million-square-foot distribution center will be built in Mebane. It is expected to open by summer 2021.
It will create 250 full-time jobs paying an average salary of $35,468, according to the North Carolina Department of Commerce.
Greenberg said Concord’s 350,000-square-foot facility that opened in December is a temporary site until Mebane opens.
“It’s been beneficial allowing us to deal with additional products due to the crisis,” Greenberg said. “A lot of our expansion plans are because the overall demand for healthcare is up.”
However, the company is also hiring now to meet current needs. To keep employees safe, Medline has hired cleaning companies to sanitize throughout the day, staggered breaks, required that workers wear PPEs, added five sick days for warehouse employees and increased hourly pay.
“We now we are very much in the middle of everything going on,” Greenberg said. “Our distribution centers are at the heart of what we do.”
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