SafeSource Direct News

As the only PPE supplier that’s built on a partnership with a trusted healthcare name, SafeSource Direct doesn’t just supply essential equipment to healthcare workers, those workers and clinicians are also an essential part of our team. 

This unique structure and the story of our founding are key to the way we operate. It’s why all of our operations are proudly based right here in the U.S. And it’s why you can depend on SafeSource Direct for U.S. provider-owned quality control that assures you that your PPE is not counterfeit, used, or made with added fillers. SafeSource Direct worked with clinicians and front-line staff on the design of its PPE - including the boxes and packaging - to make sure the PPE is tailored to real-world needs of healthcare workers. 

Our passion to ensure you have the best PPE goes back to our beginnings during one of the worst times in our nation’s recent history—the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Certainly, the pandemic taught us many hard-learned lessons. In fact, it forever changed the way we look at things we once took for granted. Availability, dependability and quality of PPE were foremost among them. 

As COVID-19 swept the planet, China and other foreign suppliers kept much of the PPE it produced for its own people. As a result, prices soared. Even worse, delayed shipments, substandard products--including used products--and clogged ports added to the crisis. 

Without trusted domestic options, U.S. providers began stockpiling their PPE inventory, tying up cash and further disrupting the supply. America learned the hard way that a trusted, reliable source of quality PPE was needed to protect its citizens and the essential workers who serve them.

Enter SafeSource Direct. 

In 2020, Ochsner Health, one of the nation’s leading health systems, and Trax Development came together to form SafeSource Direct— a just-in-time partnership— to address a major issue—how to keep U.S. health care workers and other essentials workers safe on the job. Ochsner is known nationally for quality (No. 1 Hospital and No. 1 Children’s Hospital in Louisiana, according to U.S. News & World Report) and supply chain expertise (No. 3 Healthcare Supply Chain in U.S., according to Gartner), and Trax has a long history of manufacturing experience.

Working at record speed, manufacturing facilities were constructed in Broussard, Louisiana to end U.S. healthcare providers’ dependency on unreliable and often lower quality PPE. 

“Taking care of our patients and protecting our healthcare workers is our priority at Ochsner Health. At the onset of COVID, we realized that PPE was a precious commodity and we went through great lengths to conserve it wherever possible while at the same time keeping our patients and employees safe,” said Dr. Katherine Baumgartner, Medical Director of Infection Control and Prevention at Ochsner Health. “There is now a sense of relief to know that we will have PPE available to us in our own backyard, and it’s coming from a safe, reliable source. The products have been designed to meet the high-quality standards that we require to protect those caring for our patients.”

Today, SafeSource Direct is shipping PPE all over the United States from its Louisiana facilities. The nitrile glove factory is turning out tens of thousands of gloves per day, and there are plans underway to add production lines every month until the plant becomes the nation’s largest maker of medical-grade gloves.

In its SMS facility nearby, SafeSource is currently producing surgical ear loop masks (Levels 1 & 3), surgical tie masks (Levels 1 & 3), standard three-ply procedure masks, cup respirators, and shoe covers. It will soon be making bouffant hair covers and isolation gowns. 

In addition to SafeSource Direct’s original partnership with Ochsner Health, Vizient, Inc., one of the world’s largest group purchasing organizations is also now partnering with SafeSource Direct to supply nitrile gloves to its thousands of member providers throughout the U.S.