As some rural health clinics fill up and jails try to quarantine sick inmates, a military contracting company in Pinedale has come up with a solution.
Normally, Enviremedial Services produces products and services, like water filtration systems, for the military. But with the pandemic,the company has shifted its focus, now producing mobile recovery units for COVID-19 patients. CEO Geoff Keogh said, they're transforming shipping containers into hospital rooms.
"So we start with a raw container and then we turn it into a three-room medical facility with negative pressure with all the requirements of an actual hospital room," said Keogh. "So it has an oxygen port, it has all the required outlets per federal standards for hospitalization rooms, and bathrooms and wash sinks for the healthcare workers and for the patient."
The mobile units can then be easily relocated next to a rural medical center, county jail or any other facility where patients need to be separated. Keogh said the mobile units could help state, federal and local governments safely reopen communities and prepare for a potential second wave of the virus.
"Part of the reopening of America is that they feel that they want the state and local communities to have the tools and resources to be able to handle spikes. And how are they going to be able to handle a spike and contain it so it doesn't turn to another outbreak?" he said. "And part of these containers are that. If they start to see it, they have places where they can quarantine, instead of putting them in their hospitals."
The company now employs 14 people in Pinedale, but as it ramps up production of the mobile units, Keogh expects to hire 25 more. The company's plan to manufacture one recovery unit a day.
The company is in negotiations with the Army Corp of Engineers for 250 and the Northern Arapaho Tribe is interested in placing one outside its health clinic as well.
Have a question about this story? Contact the reporter, Melodie Edwards, at medward9@uwyo.edu.
