Medical customers and food delivery continued to drive business for distributors during the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, according to the 2021 first quarter (Q1) findings from the latest Baird/gasworld Welding and Industrial Gas Survey.
The start of the year saw a rise in demand for medical oxygen in certain areas – Los Angeles; the Navajo Nation; El Paso, Texas – that saw a surge in hospitalizations and Covid-19 patients needing oxygen. Nearly half of respondents saw an increasing trend in medical oxygen in the first quarter of 2021, with 43% seeing a modest increase and 5% seeing a significantly higher increase.
A surge of Covid-19 patients requiring supplemental oxygen drove an increase in demand for oxygen in hospitals across the US. The pandemic stressed the infrastructure for delivering oxygen to hospitals and their patients. Hospitals’ infrastructure was also put under strain due to the volume of cold liquid oxygen freezing the equipment. Vaporizers frequently iced over due to the increased use, leading to delivery systems getting blocked. Brio Services reported to gasworld it has been frequently called out to hospital to de-ice vaporizers. When vaporizers got blocked, hospitals switched patients to cylinder-delivered oxygen, but that then put pressure on the hospitals’ cylinder oxygen supply, as well as the medical gas supplier.
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