Manufacturers stepping up
Companies join to get supplies to hospitals, nursing homes
FORT SMITH — Manufacturing companies in Fort Smith banded together to provide health care supplies locally.
Pradco Outdoor Brands of Birmingham, Ala., which has a factory in Fort Smith, delivered personal protective equipment to Baptist HealthFort Smith and Mercy Hospital Fort Smith on Wednesday afternoon for health care workers to use during the covid-19 crisis. The items also will be delivered to nursing homes, according to the Fort Smith Regional Chamber of Commerce.
Tim Allen, president and chief executive officer of the chamber, said during a news conference at Baptist HealthFort Smith that he engaged some of the manufacturing companies in the city. Bruce Stanton, fishing division vice president/general manager for Pradco Outdoor Brands, told Allen that he believed he could make some face shields for the health workers, which, along with bottled hand sanitizer, were eventually manufactured for that purpose.
Allen said he also partnered with Larry Balch, former site leader with Glatfelter Advanced Materials in Fort Smith. Balch used his connections with Rockline Industries of Sheboygan, Wis., and has facilities in Arkansas, to obtain a pallet of sanitation wipes to provide to workers in hospitals and nursing homes in the Fort Smith area.
“We have more to come,” Allen said. “We have more manufacturing companies that are currently making things that we hope to roll out to you all very soon, but today is an exciting day for these two companies and Harrison Dean of Baptist Health.”
In the wake of the covid-19 crisis, Dean, Baptist Health region president for western Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma, said Baptist HealthFort Smith has been following guidelines laid out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Secretary of Health and Human Services
Alex Azar and Gov. Asa Hutchinson. The hospital has limited many medical and surgical procedures, as well as non-urgent outpatient testing.
“So we’ve really seen volumes drop off,” Dean said. “People here want to serve. They want to provide services to needy patients. There’s anxiety for the caregivers. Covid-19 can be very devastating depending on the person’s condition once they contract it. So people are willing to serve. They’re a little bit fearful.”
Dean said he is constantly asked what Baptist HealthFort Smith is doing to ensure it has the safeguards in place to meet the needs of its caregivers so they can provide service to patients. Tuesday’s donation is important because the hospital can get these supplies into the hands of “front-line” employees to provide that care.
Baptist Health-Fort Smith, according to Dean, has not had any difficulty acquiring that kind of equipment at this point.
“The challenge is when people say, ‘How are you doing,’” Dean said. “Right now, we’re doing fine, but how long is this going to go on? What does it do to the inventory, what does it do to the supplies, that’s the unknown. So having more resources like Pradco to come along really will help us in the future.”