FOND DU LAC, Wis. (SPECTRUM NEWS) - A company known for creating custom and temporary building products is jumping into the battle against Coronavirus by providing solutions for healthcare. ModTruss thinks of itself as an erector set for adults. Modular pieces can be put together to build custom and temporary structures. You've seen their sets at sporting events and award presentations but now they've shifted gears to help take on Covid-19.
Company CEO Patrick Santini got the inspiration to switch gears with his products from his wife. She's an ER Physician and has seen the needs of Coronavirus patients up close.
“I asked, how do you take care of these people? When you have someone with infectious disease, the first thing you want to do is you want to get them into a containment area with a negative air pressure," said Santini.
Some quick math told Santini that hospitals would be facing a shortage of containment areas for patients. Five days after his idea, MonTruss had a prototype for the Bio-Containment Unit.
“It takes about an hour to build with simple hand tools or an impact driver. No on-site welding, fabrication or cutting is needed at any point,” said David Ostmann, ModTruss V.P. of Sales.
The company also came up with a solution to help limit the spread of the virus in waiting rooms. They call it the Common Area Barrier. It partitions off sections for patients, much like an office cubicle but taller.
“So as you can tell, our patients are separated from one another. They’re not on top of each other and they’re also not coughing on each other which will help in reducing the spread of the Coronavirus," said Ostmann.
The Common Area Barrier has since morphed into bed separators.
“We actually have some now being deployed turning regular hotel ballrooms into temporary hospitals," said Santini.
The company normally builds custom products for the entertainment and aerospace industries. They were able to go into production quickly with the new products using materials already on-hand.
“We understood that there was a need so we really changed all of our focus and efforts," said Santini.
After changing the focus of his company, Patrick wanted to leave everyone with a challenge.
“I challenge anyone who sees this to look for deficiencies in our system and maybe take some of that time and think about how we can fix the problems and not spread this disease any further,” said Santini.