Private business' innovation saves lives

AES Controls took a commonly-used machine that helps people with sleep apnea and turned it into a ventilator to treat COVID-19 patients.

For more than 30 years, AES Controls in Springdale has developed and programmed custom automation solutions for products ranging from pharmaceuticals to coiled steel.

This time the company’s knowledge was urgently needed to save lives. As the pandemic swept across the United States, public health experts feared a shortage of medical supplies, especially ventilators that would be crucial in treating COVID-19 patients.

The company’s work on helping to supply health care providers with the life-saving devices began in March as businesses began shutting down and hospitals started treating an influx of COVID-19 patients.

Rick Salerno, AES Controls’ president and CEO, said the company’s mantra would be “not on our watch.”

“We would not sit back continuing normal operations with all this engineering expertise at our disposal,” he said. “With two EMS personnel working at AES, we discussed what would produce the ‘biggest health care bang for the buck’ during this pandemic.”

CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) machines provide a steady stream of air to users while they sleep. Salerno said millions of the units were available. In fact, his brother had one that AES Controls’ engineering team borrowed to see if they could make the necessary technical changes. It turned out that the modifications worked. The company reassigned 18 of its 22 employees to support the effort.

AES Controls reached an agreement with Philips Respironics, a large CPAP machine manufacturer based near Pittsburgh. Philips Respironics sent 100 CPAP units to AES Controls for conversion.

“Like you, we are horrified to see the death estimates predicted for our families and friends,” Salerno told his employees in March. “With so much technology and expertise at AES, we were looking for a way to help save lives. ‘Not on Our Watch’ has been the fuel that has kept us moving. … These are extraordinary times, and AES is providing an extraordinary solution.”

AES Controls’ innovation was recognized by those on the frontlines.

Dr. Stuart H. Ditchek of New York University’s Grossman School of Medicine called the company’s work “truly an Apollo 13 moment” in a message to Salerno and Kenneth Beck, CEO of CEO Connection, a Syosset, New York, firm that assisted AES Controls with getting the converted CPAP machines to hospitals.

“It’s so refreshing meeting successful people who care about others, and I am humbled,” Ditchek wrote. “It is truly remarkable through a crisis like this that wonderful people like you and Ken come forward to create solutions.”

To date, AES Controls has converted 78 CPAP machines into ventilators.

“For us, it’s been a juggle between that need of feeling like we need to do something [to help fight the pandemic] along with the regular workload that we had working with customers that were essential businesses,” Salerno said.

Featured image at top: Rick Salerno, President and CEO of AES Controls, rallied his team of gifted engineers with the mantra “Not on our watch.”

AES Controls is a Goering Center core member, and the Goering Center is sharing this content as part of its Business Courier supplement for the 2020 Family & Private Business Awards. View more of the digital supplement here.