Leading the League

Michael Marnhout's competitive spirit has brought him a long way, from his days as a football player — with the University of Kentucky, Cal Western and, briefly, the Houston Oilers — to his current position as president and CEO of Lexington, Ky.-based Bluegrass Oxygen.

“I'm a pretty competitive guy,” Marnhout says, explaining that he thoroughly enjoys competing against “the big guys” in HME. Since founding Bluegrass in 1996, Marnhout has grown the company, which offers a full line of HME, to five locations in Kentucky and Ohio. At press time, a sixth was set to open.

The health care industry is as familiar to Marnhout as the Southeastern landscape of his Lexington birthplace — his mother was a hospital administrator up until the 1980s. “We were always around a hospital environment growing up and really learned what patient care was all about,” Marnhout remembers. “It was something that I felt I would like, being around patients and taking care of their needs.” Family has played an important role in Marnhout's life; he's worked in the industry with his brother Gary, currently with him at Bluegrass, for some 25 years.

But for Marnhout it seems the idea of family extends to the larger community as well. “He is an honest, compassionate and caring man who loves making a difference in people's lives … his patients, his employees, his community,” reads a nomination letter for a 2005 HomeCaring Award, which Marnhout took home in October.

HC: In the current HME environment, how do you manage to thrive?

Marnhout: Service and patient care, which is what we're known for. We have never turned anybody away. We never will. A lot of times, companies will have quotas where they'll say, “We have to have three good paying patients to set up a free one.” That's never been part of what we do.

When I first started in this business back in 1982, I went to Mom and Dad and said I'd like to borrow some money. The premise was, “OK, we think that you'll do well in this, but here's the deal: Anybody who ever needs something, you'll always take care of them, regardless.” We've always lived by that, and that's come back tenfold.

HC: What is your current goal?