Summit Medical recently announced that it has delivered more than 1 million FDA-compliant face shields for to protect healthcare workers and returning business employees during the COVID-19 pandemic.

St. Paul-based Summit Medical said it designed, engineered and manufactured the face shields in just 8 weeks, cross-training staff to assemble them and saving 65 employees’ jobs. The company specializes in a number of medical device lines, including ENT products, ophthalmic products, jaw fixation products and instrument protection trays and care and maintenance products.

“Our team’s innovative design and dedication to meet the urgent demand to protect health care workers as well as employees returning to the workplace has been outstanding,” said Summit Medical president & CEO Kevin McIntosh in a news release. “Every staff member has been involved in production and is working overtime, including weekends, to make it possible to deliver face shields with quality and speed.”

The company’s engineering team adjusted an open-source design from Maker Space at the University of Wisconsin-Madison to meet requirements for Summit Medical’s face shields to be registered and sold as a medical device, according to engineering & operations manager Tim Butina. “More importantly, we did extensive research and testing of materials to ensure Summit Medical was providing a high quality, safe product,” Butina said.