Medtronic CEO Geoff Martha
Hospitals preparing for ‘robust recovery’
“We’re also seeing signs that our hospital customers are preparing for a robust recovery. For example, purchases of our capital equipment this past quarter have been notably strong. The use of our capital equipment, such as energy consoles, robotics and navigation systems, is tied directly to procedures, so it’s telling that hospitals are prioritizing spending on this type of equipment,” Medtronic CEO Geoff Martha told analysts in a call transcribed by The Motley Fool. “After the initial wave of COVID hit back in the spring timeframe, there was a fairly — especially in the U.S., but all over the world — fairly quick recovery, I think, much faster than people anticipated. And we feel that prior to this latest wave, this latest spike of COVID that really hit us in late December, we had worked through the majority of that backlog, right? So, call that over a six-, seven-month time frame. And so, we would expect something similar here, right? So, a new backlog has built up, and we expect to be able to work through that over the next six months or so.”
