Virus diary: Boulder company finds much of nation’s ventilator stockpile out of service
BOULDER — Quality Biomedical Inc., has ramped up its production to meet a high demand for servicing ventilators around the U.S. as more hospitals and emergency medical services care for COVID-19 patients.
The Boulder-based company specializes in maintaining respiratory and infusion equipment to be patient-ready. Since March, U.S. state and county offices of emergency management have contacted Quality Biomedical to have their ventilators serviced. Hospitals and emergency medical service providers also are contacting the company.
“We are receiving requests from hospitals all over the country in addition to the emergency preparedness divisions to service their ventilators,” said Tim Worrell, chief commercial officer for Quality Biomedical.
SPONSORED CONTENT
People Powered: Preparing Longmont Businesses for Economic Success
Longmont Chamber and FNBO present People Powered on April 24, 2024, aiming to inform business owners about workforce development, housing, and transportation issues.
“You never need them until you need them and then they go to look at them and they say, ‘Oh my gosh, these are out of service.’”
Quality Biomedical will also assist with preventative measure servicing for General Motors Corp., which is collaborating with Ventec Life Systems Inc. in procuring and building ventilators.
Ventilators are medically prescribed to patients needing critical respiratory care and administered by a respiratory therapist.
Company revenue spiked 30% in March, although PK Bala, CEO of Quality Biomedical, said making a profit is the least of his concerns. Meeting demand is more of a concern.
Heavy demand comes from Florida, California and New York. The company received 1,000 ventilators that will ship out to New York state, with another 800 on the way.
Quality Biomedical has 100 employees between its seven service centers in Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Texas, Indiana, Missouri and Pennsylvania. It’s Boulder headquarters has 20 staff members. It added 12 technicians company wide beginning in January.
With the urgency of servicing ventilators, most locations are moving to a 24-hour work day split between three shifts. The Boulder center will soon follow suit when it receives a shipment of 150 ventilators.
“Everybody in the company understands that this is a national emergency,” Bala said. “And we have received zero pushback from anybody in terms of stepping up and being counted at a time when the country needs us.”
Bala said that manufacturers of ventilators typically require servicing every two years in accordance with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration guidelines. Worrell added that while the machinery will technically work past that threshold, it poses a risk to its users. Membranes can dry out and batteries die, which then threatens ambulatory and emergency patients.
“That’s the situation the country is finding itself in now, because the states have not stepped up. FEMA has not stepped up in terms of making sure that its inventory of ventilators has been properly serviced and maintained,” Bala said.
Worrell said that a representative of one hospital contacted him Tuesday because it found that several ventilators in its emergency stockpile were missing power cords, batteries, sensors and/or connectors. One model was recalled by its manufacturer more than a year ago.
“This gentleman said that they hadn’t been looked at for three years,” Worrell said. “I asked him if that [recalled] ventilator had been serviced by the manufacturer and he said, ‘No, unfortunately not.’”
Quality Biomedical services a large variety of models, with a high focus in ambulatory ventilators. One model it services is the LTV1200 Ventilator that’s manufactured by Vyaire Medical Inc. — one of the models in the strategic national stockpile.
Bala said Quality Biomedical is actively contacting emergency preparedness divisions in Colorado, as well as hospitals and EMS teams. Gov. Jared Polis wrote in a letter to Vice President Mike Pence that the state has a need for 10,000 ventilators. But so far, Quality Biomedical is not servicing any machines for use in Colorado. Bala said the company would like to help its local community.
“One of the reasons we are reaching out to emergency preparedness organizations in the various states and counties is that we can help take that [maintenance] over for you and keep the inventory in a patient-ready condition, so that it’s available at any given moment,” Bala said. “That is not happening today in any major county, any major city, any major state or even the federal government. That’s a big hole in our ability to respond to a situation like this.”
