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COVID192021-08-05T09:50:04-05:00

COVID-19
Resource Center

Breathe deeply: 4 considerations to stay ahead of the COVID surge

In April, Time magazine covered Frieda Fairman, a respiratory therapist of 14 years, currently at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. A job that typically involved working with patient breathing issues ranging from sleep apnea to asthma to heart attacks has morphed to something much more intense.

Respiratory care
In the face of extraordinary pressure, you give it everything you've got.
Your enduring bravery inspires us to dig deeper every day.

UPDATED February 03, 2021

Supply access update

Supply availability

Across the country, demand continues to grow at 300% higher than traditional manufacturing and distribution volumes and has outstripped normal demand by 1000% for certain products. We continue to monitor inventory levels on an ongoing basis and do everything possible to get volumes to match COVID-level demand. While allocations remain on many categories, we will provide updates as needed.

Supplies on allocation include, but are not limited to, the following:
UPDATED February 03, 2021
  • Facemasks
  • Isolation gowns and coveralls
  • Surgical drapes and gowns
  • Standard and custom packs
  • Hand sanitizer
  • Exam gloves
  • Nasopharyngeal swabs

Many factories throughout Asia continue to operate with restrictions, and there are continued disruptions in production and distribution.

Alleviating strain on the supply chain

  • At the beginning of the pandemic, we invested in air freight shipments for several months to accelerate PPE delivery. Ultimately, more than 25 million exam gloves and more than 50 million facemasks and gowns were air freighted, reducing manufacturing-to-dock time by 3-4 weeks.
  • Globally sourced numerous new PPE options as “Spot Buy” opportunities to augment the PPE supply chain, including cover gowns, coveralls, face shields, facemasks and bouffant caps.
  • For disinfectant wipes, the availability of materials (e.g. canisters and wipe fabric) continues to intermittently disrupt production. We continue to be challenged by the market-wide shortage of isopropyl alcohol, a key ingredient in several products. To mitigate disruption of your supply needs, we are offering substitutes based on availability. If the chemistry of the offered sub is not compatible with your equipment and surfaces, you may continue to order your original product, which will be fulfilled as inventory becomes available.

Account insight

Medline has been actively working to provide you visibility into products that are on allocation.

Log in to the Medline.com online catalog to see your allocation for each impacted item. After you are logged in, you will see the following on an item-specific basis:

  1. Your allocation quantity
  2. What has already been ordered
  3. How much more is available until the next reset period (the 1stof the following month)

We hope this helps provide some insight into your current supply status and helps with planning.
*This will be updated as new information becomes available.

UPDATED February 03, 2021

Enterprise response

Forward-looking relief efforts

North American
manufacturing expansion
In addition to increased hand sanitizer production, Medline announced our North American Manufacturing Expansion initiatives toward the end of 2020 and is on track to have the earloop facemasks manufactured (with foreign and domestic materials) at our Lithia Springs, Georgia facility starting Q3 2021. We are currently evaluating advanced customer volume commitments to support domestic manufacturing of exam gloves within the United States.

Supply chain continuity
resource guide
With demand for facemasks, isolation gowns, gloves, headwear and footwear increasing at a rapid pace, our priority has been to expand our supply chain capacity to enable the most impactful response. The battle against COVID-19 is far from over, and neither are our efforts to ensure you are prepared. Our endeavors to deliver supplies and solutions are unmatched and we continue to maximize every opportunity to support you during this time. For more information, please contact your Medline representative.

10,000 employees working
round-the-clock
We’ve continued full operations since the beginning of COVID-19, with more than 10,000 employees in our domestic manufacturing and warehouse facilities.

Increasing hand sanitizer
production
In under a month, we restructured manufacturing operations in Wisconsin and Connecticut to supply a substantial volume of hand sanitizer and are now producing more than 400,000 bottles per week.

Increasing PPE production
Medline has substantially increased overall global production capacity for PPE products, in some cases by as much as 10x. Additionally, we’ve delivered more than 9 billion exam gloves, nearly 400 million facemasks, cover gowns, and isolation gowns to healthcare customers.

Maximizing delivery capabilities
Delivering nationwide at full capacity, our 1,000+ MedTrans trucks are deployed daily and maximizing delivery capabilities.

A message from our CEO

Thank you to Medline customers and all healthcare providers for their extraordinary efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic

Watch Now

Economic and social challenges at the center of the crisis

Why Medline’s response at home and beyond matters

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Industry action

UPDATED February 03, 2021

Protecting our employees

Here’s an overview of some of the efforts in our U.S. facilities to support the fight against COVID-19 during these unprecedented times. Similar initiatives have occurred globally.

  • Only essential employees are working on-site. We have instituted temperature checks
    outside of manufacturing facilities before employees or deliveries may enter. We are also
    enforcing our policy for sending home sick employees.
  • All business travel has been halted.

  • All corporate fitness centers are closed, and cafeterias remain open only in buildings with manufacturing and distribution team members. In open cafeterias:
    • All self-service food stations are closed
    • A seating grid aligning with social distancing has been put in place
  • All break rooms, restrooms and mothers’ rooms are stocked with hand sanitizer.
  • Implemented a system for employees who are working in the office to be able to tag all surfaces they regularly contact – which are then cleaned by cleaning crews three times per day.

  • Our leadership team is regularly sending transparent updates to employees on company-wide guidelines and changes in the national landscape.
  • All sales employees are receiving weekly updates on customer-impacting supply chain events and allocations.
  • A Coronavirus Response intranet page provides employees with educational materials, FAQs, resources for physical and mental health and wellness, as well as links to regularly-updated health information from the CDC and WHO.

  • Office-based employees can order home office hardware free of charge to help make the transition to working from home as easy and productive as possible.
  • Implemented a virtual queuing technology for customer service calls that enables customer service personnel to work from home.

Management resources

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COVID-19 toolkit
COVID-19Toolkit
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Practical solutions

Keep Current

Access your free demo of Surgical Center Toolbox to simplify your accreditation process as your surgery center prepares for post COVID-19 operations

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info

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