Medline invested an additional $300 million in 2023 as part of the company’s Healthcare Resilience Initiative (HRI), helping to support the long-term supply chain needs of healthcare providers. This is on top of the $2 billion investment in HRI that the company has made since 2018, furthering its commitment to delivering superior customer service.

“Medline operates the largest U.S. supply chain of any medical-surgical manufacturer and distributor, and we continue to make significant investments to ensure the resiliency of the healthcare supply chain—in distribution, manufacturing and technology,” said Jim Boyle, Medline chief executive officer. “These investments allow us to work day-to-day alongside our customers, anticipating and meeting their needs in a rapidly changing environment.”

Expanding distribution infrastructure and product delivery

In 2023, Medline celebrated five new distribution centers, representing 4.5 million square feet of incremental warehouse space, including facilities in Hammond, Louisiana, West Jefferson, Ohio, Salt Lake City, Utah, St. Peters, Missouri, and Mebane, North Carolina. Since 2018, Medline has opened 20 new distribution centers, bringing the company’s total footprint to more than 50 distribution centers across North America.

As part of Medline’s investment in its operations, the company continues to expand its implementations of AutoStore^TM— cutting-edge automated storage and retrieval—for goods-to-person, less-than-case picking and other automated solutions. Medline was the first AutoStore user in the U.S., and is currently the largest user in the world with 19 systems and over 1,600 robots.

To ensure customers receive products where and when needed, Medline has the largest owned transportation fleet of any healthcare product distributor in the U.S. Since launching MedTrans in 2002, the company has doubled its fleet size every five years, bringing the current total to 1,700 vehicles. Today, the MedTrans fleet is comprised of semitrucks, box trucks and cargo vans to accommodate large and small deliveries.

Investing in manufacturing initiatives

In 2023, $125 million of the company’s HRI investment went towards new manufacturing projects, including the expansion of Medline’s:

• Medical device reprocessing capabilities: ReNewal™, Medline’s device reprocessing program, recently doubled the size of its Redmond, Oregon facility to expand its capacity to reprocess medical devices that would otherwise end up in a landfill. The Redmond facility has the technical capacity to reprocess more than 4,300 types of supplies and devices across specialties of care, including orthopedics; ear, nose and throat; general/urology; ophthalmology and cardiac catheterization.
  

  Medline’s pre-filled bubble humidifier

• Respiratory product manufacturing: Medline recently completed a capacity expansion to add a pre-filled bubble humidifier line to its Arlington Heights, Illinois facility. The single-use bottles are filled with water and designed for oxygen therapy. The water is sterilized to ensure patient safety and to help avoid cross-contamination. Medline took over the Arlington Heights facility in 2021 when it acquired a significant portion of the Hudson RCI® brand of respiratory products from Teleflex. The acquisition signaled the company’s staunch commitment to growing its respiratory offerings.

• Increased production line efficiencies in Lithia Springs, Georgia: Robotic upgrades for 12 manufacturing lines — producing FitRight incontinence products and facemasks — improving sorting, palletizing and distribution efficiencies.

Building upon healthcare sustainability

Climate resilience and environmental action are key pillars of Medline’s Environmental, Social and Governance program, which aims to make healthcare more sustainable for people and the planet. Since 2016, the company has invested $34.4 million in seven solar energy installations in the U.S., bringing the company’s portfolio to approximately 60,000 solar panels globally. Recent solar installations at Medline distribution centers include Montgomery, New York and Uxbridge, Massachusetts. The installation at Medline’s Montgomery facility marks the largest rooftop solar project in New York.

Additional sustainability programs and efforts include minimizing exam glove waste through new products and packaging, providing innovative sustainable packaging solutions through the company’s award-winning Sustainable Packaging Lab, and offering a Green Product Portfolio providing alternative cleaning products without harsh chemicals; responsibly manufactured products that incorporate recycled materials or less packaging.

“At the end of the day, we recognize the intersection between sustainability and health,” said Francesca Olivier, Medline vice president of ESG. “We want to make sure that we are supporting our customers and the communities they serve by identifying and developing solutions to decarbonize our operations.”

Read more about how Medline is building a reliable healthcare supply chain.