Primary Matters

In Midland, Texas, population 95,000, the claim to fame is the Bush connection. It's the hometown of President George W. and Laura Bush. And town lore has it that during their courting days, the two sipped sodas at the old Rexall Drug soda fountain.

But if Justin Rogers has his way, there will soon be something else to put Midland on the map — the home medical equipment map, anyway.

Rogers, general manager of Primary Medical Supply, and his dad Steve, a pharmacist who owns Primary Medical and two pharmacies (including that legendary Rexall Drug), are working to develop not a one-stop-shop, but a one-stop health complex.

Already, they are halfway there. In January, Primary Medical moved to a brand-new, 9,600-square-foot building designed for three tenants. One of Steve's pharmacies moved next door; the other space will be rented to another health-related tenant such as a doctor, dentist or nursing agency.

“Then we'll build an identical building on this property, so there will be almost 20,000 square feet on [this site for health-related businesses],” says Justin.

He envisions a day in the not-so-distant future when Primary Medical customers can visit their physician, get their prescriptions filled and arrange for home medical equipment and home nursing care in a single trip. And that, he believes, will be a terrific boon for patients because they won't have to be running all over town for all their health needs.

It's happening already, he says with undisguised pleasure in his voice. “[Patients] come in here, we take care of them and then they can walk right next door and get their blood pressure medication and get in their car and go home, curl up on the sofa and watch ‘Oprah.’ It's a step saver.”

How did all this come about? The story actually begins a few years ago in August 2003, when Primary Medical Supply became a full-fledged HME provider. The company inhabited the second floor of an office building. “It started out real small, with just me,” Justin says. “It's been a work in progress.”

Justin, a registered pharmacy technician with a background in advertising and marketing, knew a lot about the pharmaceutical business but little about HME. He relied largely on manufacturers to help him learn the ropes, and he listened to his dad's advice about getting too big too soon.

“It was smart thinking on Dad's part,” Justin says. “He said, ‘Let's not get too big for our britches, let's grow into it.’”