HDI’s Rugby Architectural Building Products of Brooklyn, New York, teamed with Ingenlzi Interiors, Inc. of New York to provide Tafisa white melamine panels to fabricate nurse’s stations and tables at a temporary hospital set up in New York, according to an article in NBMDA’s Channel Connection.

Working through the weekend, the Rugby Bronx location supplied Ignelzi Interiors, Inc. with the Tafisa melamine needed to convert sites at SUNY Old Westbury, New York, into an alternate care facility. Ignelzi Interiors fabricated the 29 nurse’s stations at 20-feet long each within days, with an additional 27 tables currently under fabrication.

The 1,020 beds for various patients located at SUNY Old Westbury emergency hospital are set up in gymnasium and tents, and are part of a statewide effort to expand the maximum number of hospital beds New York has in order to more effectively treat patients as Covid-19 cases continue to climb.

In their haste to get the facility operational distancing protocols were sometimes not practical. HDI meets the U.S. federal definition of an essential business and as a result the company, and most of its suppliers and customers, have generally remained open during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Director of marketing Gord Clough took note of some positive services, saying “Our employees take great pride in meeting the challenge of providing essential building materials to help expand front line medical facilities – and it gives us an even greater sense of purpose knowing that our products and our people are helping fight Covid-19.”

HDI is taking many precautions to protect the health of its over 1,350 employees and ensuring its 66 distribution facilities are kept clean and safe. They have instituted a number of policies and procedures including detailed cleaning and disinfecting procedures, social distancing protocols, suspension of air travel, continuing education for employees designed to minimize the chances of infection and spread of the virus, increased work-from-home procedures, and contingency plans in the event a Covid-19 diagnosis is found in one of its facilities.

HDI is North America's largest distributor of architectural grade building products to the residential and commercial construction markets. The company operates a North American network of 66 distribution centers that operate under three industry leading distribution brands: Hardwoods Specialty Products; the Frank Paxton Lumber Co. and Rugby Architectural Building Products. HDI also operates one sawmill with kiln drying operation, Hardwoods of Michigan.