Senior Care Products
HME Provider Profile: OxyMed
Jonathan Temple—owner of two OxyMed locations in Alabama—sees his professional success as bound to that of his patients and health care partners, and the positive results of this philosophy are undeniable. Since purchasing the original Rainsville location in 2010, and opening a second location in Birmingham that same year, Temple has seen OxyMed’s annual revenues rise from around $400,000 to over $1 million. The staff has likewise doubled from the original six to the current 12 employees.
Temple’s formula can be summed up in one word: relationships. It was the strength of the personal bonds he formed over his 20-plus years in the home medical equipment business that spurred him to buy and expand OxyMed, a full-service HME provider specializing in respiratory and sleep products. “I’ve done business the same way everywhere I’ve been—always be available,” he says. “I actually was in partnership with another company in 2010, and my partners bought me out. When they announced that I was no longer part of the business, referral sources started calling me saying ‘get yourself together and start taking our referrals, because we don’t want to use anybody but you.’ So I moved pretty rapidly to purchase OxyMed, because I didn’t want to miss the opportunity. But it all comes down to relationships. I know it sounds like a cliché, but you put people first and they trust you with their referrals.”
Patient satisfaction is the top priority for OxyMed. According to Temple, if the patient doesn’t feel comfortable with their CPAP equipment he won’t use it, or he won’t use it properly. Thus the patient believes the CPAP doesn’t work, which reflects badly on the prescribing physician. “My job is to make everybody look good,” he says with a chuckle.
OxyMed’s comfort strategy begins as soon as a patient walks in the door. The Birmingham location, tucked away in a shopping center off a major highway, looks more like a day spa than a clinic or equipment warehouse. The store’s wrought iron doors, high ceilings, sunny paint scheme and wood details create a stylish, soothing atmosphere. At the time of our interview Temple’s sister-in-law, an interior designer, was in the process of updating the store’s portable oxygen concentrator (POC) display wall, adding pops of color and rearranging the merchandise to make the display more eye-catching. “When you walk in, we don’t want you to feel sick. We want you to feel well,” says Temple.
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