General Motors sends Kokomo-made ventilators to Franciscan Health, Weiss Memorial hospitals

Franciscan Health Olympia Fields on Friday received ventilators made at a General Motors plant in Kokomo, Indiana, retooled to meet the demand of treating COVID-19 pandemic patients. Weiss Memorial Hospital in Chicago will get the medical devices in the afternoon.

The ventilators were sent to the hospitals at the direction of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, GM said.

The ventilators were made by GM in a partnership with Ventec Life Systems, headquartered near Seattle. GM approached the ventilator company in mid-March about a partnership and by March 23 the two companies were ready to launch their joint ventilator project.

The Kokomo plant in central Indiana was picked because it was making precision electronic components before it was shut down by the coronavirus outbreak, a GM spokesman said.

The GM/Ventec Life Systems partnership has a contract with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to make 30,000 ventilators by the end of August. UPS delivered the ventilators.

“The passion and commitment that people at GM, Ventec and our suppliers have put into this work is inspiring, and we are all humbled to support the heroic efforts of medical professionals in Chicagoland and across the world who are fighting to save lives and turn the tide of the pandemic,” GM Chairman and CEO Mary Barra said in a statement.

“For a community hospital that was already struggling with budgetary constraints prior to this crisis, these ventilators are a much-needed infusion of critical resources to care for our patients, which includes a significant elderly population,” Mary Shehan, CEO of Weiss Memorial Hospital, said in a statement.

“We are extremely grateful for the support and to all those who are rallying to ensure that our frontline caregivers have the necessary supplies to care for our patients. We need all the help we can get now to rise to this unprecedented challenge.”

Allan Spooner, president and CEO of Franciscan Health Olympia Fields ,said in a statement, “We have health care heroes who are on the frontlines in this pandemic, and we’re grateful to know there is support to attain more of the essential resources they need to care for the most critically ill patients. Every single one of these ventilators will make a difference in the lives of critical COVID-19 patients and our other patients with acute respiratory illness. We are grateful and inspired by the ingenuity and dedication of everyone behind this truly lifesaving gift.”