COVID-19 Precautions to Ensure Continuity and Quality

Dear Valued Business Partners, 

As the public health response to COVID-19 continues, our thoughts remain with the communities and individuals severely affected by this virus. Merit Medical is fully committed to doing our part to contain the spread of COVID-19 and provide an uninterrupted supply of Merit’s products to our OEM partners across the globe.

In addition to the virus, Salt Lake City, Utah was hit by a 5.7 magnitude earthquake on the morning of March 18, 2020. This earthquake caused some damage in Salt Lake City and left over 80,000 individuals without power. Fortunately, despite Merit’s global headquarters being only 15 miles away from the epicenter, Merit did not experience any physical damage to our facilities or production equipment. Production and shipping remain fully operational and have only experienced minor delays.

Given these emergencies and the potential for supply chain interruption, I wanted to share Merit’s plan to eliminate any COVID-19 related disruption and assure our OEM Partners that Merit’s Utah Campus was not affected by the earthquake.

Merit has worked hard to establish a secure supply chain and has not been impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak. Merit’s procurement and planning teams are vigilantly monitoring the situation for changes. We are confident in our supply chain and do not anticipate any shortages. Merit Medical mitigates supply chain risk with appropriate safety stocks and dual sourcing of materials.

Additionally, our strategy from inception was to be as vertically integrated as reasonable to avoid disruptions. To that end, Merit has developed manufacturing capabilities such as injection molding, extrusions, coatings, and sensors that are now the core of our business. Should any disruptive circumstances develop beyond our current knowledge, we will promptly inform you.

Merit Medical has closed all global facilities to all visitors, vendors, and customers. All on-site audits scheduled through the end of Q2 have been rescheduled during Q3 or Q4. For any questions about on-site audits, feel free to reach out to your OEM Business Development Manager or your OEM Customer Service Representative. 

To limit exposure and the spread of the virus, we have implemented telecommuting protocols to allow non-essential staff to work remotely. This will allow our engineers, customer service, and sales representatives to stay active in their roles without risking exposure of the virus to our production workers and operations staff.

Additionally, Merit will conduct medical screening for all staff before entering all Merit’s facilities each day. Employees showing elevated temperatures or other symptoms will be diverted off campus to gain the appropriate medical services to ensure their recovery. We believe this additional security will ensure the health and safety of Merit’s staff, which are vital to production and day-to-day operations.

Merit has fully implemented guidelines related to social distancing, food preparation, and enhanced cleaning and sanitation protocols. These policies will help minimize person to person contact and help ensure our workforce remains healthy and productive. 

Merit is restricting all business travel until April 30, 2020. In place of face-to-face meetings, we will leverage a cloud-based communication platform to conduct business, collaborate, and further our business relationships with our partners.

We are confident in the strong foundation that Merit has strategically built over the last three decades. This strong foundation gives Merit the ability to adapt and overcome the challenges we currently face. Merit remains fully committed to deliver high quality products while minimizing supply chain disruptions. 

Thank you for your continued partnership during these unprecedented times.  

Sincerely,