South Jersey company comes to rescue of hospital, custom-building air scrubbers

PENNSAUKEN, N.J. (WPVI) -- A South Jersey metal-working company has come to the rescue of several area hospitals setting up COVID-19 units.

Normally, it takes months to custom build portable air scrubbers for patient rooms.

But Penn Medicine put out an SOS to Rhoads Metal Works on March 26th.

And the company, which normally doesn't do this kind of metal work for hospitals, designed, built, and delivered the first units in 3 days.

"We were designing and fabricating on the fly," general manager Michael Pagano told us.

"We had to be able to get stock material - stock fans, stock wheels & casters, stock HEPA filters from many different suppliers, bring them together and make this unit," Pagano added.

Pagano says Rhoads has not only delivered 7 units to HUP, 5 for Pennsylvania Hospital, and 2 for Einstein Medical Center, it's worked on several for other hospitals.

And it's now talking to Inspira Health in New Jersey.

Pagano say the nationwide shutdown of many factories makes it harder to find the necessary parts, but he keeps trying new suppliers, getting what he can, so the workers at Rhoads can keep going.