It's a Small World

You wouldn't think that investing in a fleet of hybrid cars would have anything to do with children. But at Pediatric Home Service in Roseville, Minn., it has everything to do with them.

“Our vision-mission-goal is to take care of the medically fragile child in [his or her] home using cutting-edge technology,” says Susan Wingert, CEO of the company, one of only a few home health care/HME providers in Minnesota offering respiratory care and infusion therapy to children with special medical needs.

Three years ago, Wingert began thinking about how the company was delivering its oximeters, ventilators and other equipment. It seemed rather ironic that PHS, so dedicated to helping children breathe better, might be polluting the air with the vehicles it used to transport respiratory equipment. So, the company got rid of its gas hogs and invested in a fleet of what is now some 40 hybrid cars and trucks.

“We want to provide a legacy of environmental stewardship. We want to leave a legacy for our children of an earth that is as clean as possible,” says Wingert. “You've got to walk the talk. If we take care of kids, we have to do it in more meaningful aspects than just the home environment.”

The story of the hybrid fleet is illustrative of just how meticulous the provider is in its care of patients. At PHS, the kids always come first.

Partnering for Pediatric Care

Although trained as a respiratory therapist, Wingert had never worked in that end of home care. For years, she was involved in sales for a national home health care company. But when her company sold once, then twice, Wingert decided to start her own business.

It was an unthinkable situation that propelled her into pediatric home care. There were plenty of people caring for adults needing respiratory care in their homes. It was time, she decided, for someone to take care of the children. “We literally had children who had been in the hospital from the day they were born until they were 7 years old because there was no one to care for them,” Wingert recalls.

She was emboldened by three doctors.

“We had three pulmonologists who really believed that there wasn't anyone who couldn't be treated at home. They wanted someone who paid attention. And I did.”

Wingert and five others — all but one a care practitioner — were the staff when Pediatric Home Service opened in January 1990. Working out of a 3,300-square-foot building, they offered care for pediatric ventilator and respiratory patients in their homes.