HealthTrust, a global leader in purchasing aggregation and performance improvement for healthcare, announced today that it will co-manage operations of a newly formed company created to manufacture surgical and procedure masks in the United States. Through an innovative partnership between HCA Healthcare Mission Fund, LLC, an affiliate of HCA Healthcare and A Plus International Inc., members of HealthTrust -- including its AdvantageTrust and CoreTrust programs -- will benefit from strategies to reduce risk in the global supply chain through enhanced access to personal protective equipment (PPE) used by clinicians and commercial customers in verticals including hospitality and manufacturing.
Domestic production of Level 1 and Level 3 masks meeting American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) standards for quality and safety is expected to begin in early 2021 from a manufacturing center in Asheville, N.C. Exclusive distribution will be through a controlled channel managed by HealthTrust subsidiary Resource Optimization & Innovation (ROi), giving the operator total visibility of the supply chain from raw materials to finished goods.
"As a provider owned and operated organization, we acted early on to address the vulnerabilities in the global supply chain for critical PPE," said Ed Jones, HealthTrust president and CEO. "Our ability to aggregate scale on behalf of our aligned membership along with our global visibility of the healthcare supply chain from raw materials to finished goods afforded us the opportunity to develop this unique solution.
"In partnering with A Plus, we will help ensure that our members have scalable access to quality masks manufactured in the U.S. Should there be a surge in demand similar to what was experienced in the first half of 2020, members can take comfort knowing that we will have the flexibility to ramp up production capacity commensurate with their needs."